mr. carse reports on the initiatives taken concerning financial industries in fujian, hong kong and taiwan speech by the deputy chief executive of the hong kong monetary authority, mr. david carse, at the symposium on the financial exchange and cooperation of fujian, hong kong and taiwan, held on 8 / 8 / 98. i am pleased to be here this morning to welcome you to this symposium. the chinese banks ’ association is to be congratulated for organizing this important initiative with the co - sponsorship of the fujian provincial government and chinatrust commercial bank. the idea of the symposium, as i understand it, is to facilitate the exchange of ideas concerning the financial industries in the three regions and the exploration of cooperative opportunities between them. 2. such an initiative could not have come at a better time. the current financial crisis is creating havoc among the asia economies. initially, the damage was felt in the financial sector. but the full impact is now being seen in the real economy as output and trade are crippled by higher interest rates, the burden of foreign currency borrowing and the credit crunch. the mainland of china, hong kong and taiwan have survived the crisis in better shape than most other economies in the region. but they have not been unaffected as events of this week have demonstrated in hong kong where we have witnessed further speculative pressure on the hong kong dollar. 3. in this kind of uncertain economic environment, it is all the more important that we should be trying to maximize the opportunities to develop trade and investment links between neighbouring economies. that is why this symposium is timely and important. the existing economic links between fujian, hong kong and taiwan provide a solid platform on which to build for the future. taiwan and hong kong are already major trading partners with taiwan ’ s exports to hong kong accounting for 23. 5 % of its total exports in 1997. visitors from taiwan also account for a significant proportion of the total number of visitors to the territory and thus make a major contribution to the tourist industry in hong kong which, as you will know, currently needs all the help it can get. 4. trade between hong kong and fujian is also growing rapidly in both directions and both hong kong and taiwan are a major source of overseas investment into the province. there are over 10, 000 hong kong enterprises in fujian. 5. the hong kong presence in fujian includes a number of banks from hong kong, including bank of east asia. the same bank also maintains a branch in taiwan which puts it in a good position to take advantage

), tracking euro area wages in exceptional times, the ecb blog. 6. see p. adrjan, r. lydon ( 2022 ), wage growth in europe : evidence from job ads, central bank of ireland economic letter 2022 - 07. 7. see arce, o. and sondermann, d. ( 2024 ), “ low for long? reasons for the recent decline in productivity ”, the ecb blog, 6 may. 8. these patterns are charted in my recent speech lane, p. r. ( 2024 ), “ disinflation in the euro area : an update ”, speech at the university college dublin economics society, 15 april. 9. see also c. lagarde ( 2024 ), “ building confidence in the path ahead, ” speech at the ecb and its watchers xxiv conference, organised by the institute for monetary and financial stability, goethe university. 10. see chart 37 in lane, p. r. ( 2024 ), “ the analytics of the monetary policy tightening cycle ”, speech at stanford graduate school of business, 2 may. 11. for a more extensive discussion of the rate setting criteria, see lane, p. r. ( 2024 ), “ the analytics of the monetary policy tightening cycle ”, speech at stanford graduate school of business, 2 may.