movements in overseas markets will be required. these are some of the challenges and opportunities i see facing the services sector and especially the financial corporate sector as it attempts to grow. this first decade of the 21st century promises therefore to be an exciting one for the caribbean provided if we are willing to grasp the many opportunities presented and provided we are not side tracked from our goal of keeping up with the front runners. we cannot afford to fall behind. i trust that over the rest of this conference our deliberations will help to confirm our resolve. thank you.

domestic investor base would help. both help support market stability at times of stress. second, diversify trade. trade diversification to regions with high growth potential, such as africa and the middle east is important. by connecting with more economies, asia can help sustain globalisation. trade in services is another promising area for diversification, not only because of the relatively low levels of trade openness in services regionally, but also because the burgeoning digital economy offers exciting opportunities to export a wide range of digitally - deliverable services. third, develop capacity. grooming talent and developing infrastructure, both physical and digital, are essential if we are to attract foreign investment. and investment in digital infrastructure will allow regional economies to harness emerging trends, such as generative ai, to enhance productivity, increase connectivity to the global economy, and make supply chains more sustainable by allowing firms to monitor the esg performance of their supply chain partners more easily. and finally, deepen regional collaboration. the regionalisation of supply chains offers unique opportunities for greater collaboration, in terms of promoting sustainability and 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches enhancing the architecture for cross - border payments. regarding sustainability, firms have stepped up efforts to enhance the esg performance of their supply chains after the pandemic. our research finds that firms that upgrade their esg performance tend to improve their suppliers'esg performance as well. i believe this means there is considerable scope for cooperation in green technologies and enhancing the ecosystem of sustainable finance in the region. meanwhile, as trade and supply chain linkages in asia become more integrated, there is greater scope to use local currencies in regional trade settlement and beyond. indeed, an increasing number of economies, including those in the asean, want to use the rmb to settle their trade with china. to facilitate this, the cross - border payments infrastructure needs to become more efficient to keep up with demand. and of course it would be remiss of me not to talk about hong kong's unique advantages and how it can help meet the challenges ahead. as well as building on our traditional role as a gateway between the east and west, if we are to capture growth opportunities offered by markets such as the asean, the middle east and africa, we need to expand trade networks and improve logistic infrastructure. to this end, hong kong's active participation in the belt and road initiative, and application for accession to the regional comprehensive economic partnership, represent new avenues of longterm