of thailand greater efficiency among players both in the public and private sectors. i will now turn to the legislation that will help improve productivity. there are three laws in particular that i believe will be of your interest. first is the licensing facilitation act, which is already in effect since july last year. the law intends to make acquiring a permit easier and more transparent for all businesses. relevant government agencies are now required to provide manuals and guidelines regarding permit application under their jurisdiction to the general public. this includes listing of all necessary procedures and the expected timeframe of approval, resulting in predictability of permit acquisition and lower chances of bribery. as such, the efficiency of civil service will be improved and costs associated with time lag minimized. next is the royal decree on review of laws and regulations. the decree requires that all laws and regulations be reviewed once every five years. this is to ensure that necessary adjustment can be made to accommodate dynamic changes in business practices. the bank of thailand alone has roughly 180 laws and regulations under our jurisdiction to be reviewed. moreover, under this decree, the general public can submit petition to voice their suggestions to relevant agencies. this will ensure that laws are practical, up to date, and serve public needs. the third law that will enhance productivity is the payment system bill, which is meant to replace the old governing laws and regulations that are dispersed under many different authorities. this payment system bill will consolidate fragmented laws relating to payment systems, especially electronics and digital payments, and allow the bank of thailand to be the sole regulator in this field. under a single unified law, businesses will find it easier to comply with regulations ; and at the same time the bank of thailand will strive to maintain flexibility in our supervision of payment systems in a way that mitigates risks but does not hinder innovation. in addition, the bill also provides assurance of payment finality and float protection, thus upgrading thailand ’ s payment system to international standards. we acknowledge the importance of payment infrastructure in supporting the digital economy. the emergence of financial technology or fintech along with its various innovations cannot be fully realized without having a good legal support and a clear policy. i will elaborate more on thailand ’ s payment system in the third part of this talk. before moving on to the next group of laws, i want to remind the audience that while i chose to highlight these three laws, there are many other legal reforms taking place that would enhance business productivity. one example is the eastern economic corridor

, both for our internal purposes, but also as evaluators of the risk management capacity of regulated entities. we will continuously endeavour to enhance the risk management skills and capabilities of market participants and improve the micro - infrastructure of markets so that financial stability is maintained. meanwhile, we will need to keep in mind the very varied nature of our economy that i had alluded to earlier. the key to our approach to the development of financial derivatives in india has to be a proactive stance for the adoption of robust risk management systems within the relevant financial intermediaries and, from our point of view, particularly in banks. we have to ensure that the introduction of new risk instruments actually increases the risk management capabilities of the system as a whole, and not the other way round because of inadequate preparation. reflections on risk management at rbi the reserve bank of india, like all other central banks is also a financial institution that is exposed to a variety of risks. over the last several years, there has been a structural transformation of the risk exposure of the rbi in that as against pre - dominantly rupee - denominated assets figuring on its balance sheet, it now has an overwhelming proportion of assets denominated in major foreign currencies. this transformation means more volatility in its asset valuation in rupee terms as also in the current earnings in rupee terms. it needs to be emphasized that while a bank or a corporate in any country can choose to eliminate foreign currency risk, a central bank like the rbi, which does not have any liability in foreign exchange, cannot hedge exchange rate risk beyond a very modest extent. the approach followed by the rbi in this regard for a very long time has been to have a diversified portfolio of reserves, both in terms of currencies and instruments and a strong level of capitalization. the rbi has also been very transparent in disclosing its risk management policies in annual reports and also in half - yearly reports of reserves management since january 2005. in addition to the issues related to market risk management of our assets and, hence, the integrity of our balance sheet, which is so essential for the financial system as a whole, we have to deal increasingly with the issues of operational risk that i had outlined earlier. as the institution responsible for the payment and settlement system we are giving increased attention to all our own it systems, back up, alternative sites, and the like. limits of risk management adoption of risk management policies and practices by economic entities in the sense that