sub prime crisis, these funds have injected significant amounts of long term funds to the large ailing institutions to resurrect them or to prevent them from continuing with poor financial health. in that sense, the sovereign funds have acted as an immensely useful stabilizing force during the financial crisis. however, the injection of such funds has been received with mixed feelings in the geo - political context. i would think the debate on this development is just beginning and it would be useful for all of us to carefully watch the movement of this issue in time to come. another important development in reserve management is the extensive use of external fund managers. external fund managers are being increasingly engaged by central banks, as many central banks are yet to acquire the technical skills and competencies required to manage the new asset classes that are developing in these dynamic market conditions. i would think this factor too, would be one that we would have to give a lot of attention in the future, and as to how we make use of such expertise without compromising central banks ’ core objectives, would be a challenge for all of us. 6. my dear friends, given the importance of reserve management, it is timely to organize a seminar on this subject. when reading through your program, i realized that the organizers and the resource persons have done remarkably well in selecting the topics to be covered. in my view, the topics and presentations are just the right blend that a reserve manager would wish to focus on, in this day and age. finally, let me take this opportunity to sincerely thank the resource persons who have accepted our invitation to share their knowledge and experiences on various subjects relating to reserve management, the central banks of our member countries for showing high interest in this program, our own cbs for organizing this event, and i wish that all of us could benefit significantly from the program. i wish this seminar all success.

eli m remolona : emerging trends in central bank policies and operations speech by mr eli m remolona, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the 4th international research fair, manila, 30 july 2024. * * * introduction that was a very thought - provoking presentation, refet [ gurkaynak ]. refet is an old friend from the fed ( federal reserve ). but my role now is to welcome you all, to do a proper welcome for you all. so, professor refet gurkaynak, presenters, discussants, and participants - from both the philippines and abroad - and bsp ( bangko sentral ng pilipinas ) colleagues, including my colleagues in the monetary board, good afternoon and thank you for joining us over the next two days. this is the fourth annual bangko sentral ng pilipinas international research fair. the fair started in 2021 and it has become one of my favorite events. so, thank you former governor ben diokno, who gave the opening remarks today. thank you, former governor felipe medalla, and thank you to the bsp research academy ( brac ) for all that you have done to set up this fair and to sustain it. as we all know, central banking is a nerdy business. that means research is central to what we do. this reminds me of an episode in douglas adams'wonderful novel, a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. in the novel, a supercomputer called deep thought was asked the question, " what is the answer to life? " after extensive computation, deep thought replied that the answer to life is the number 42. when doubts were raised about the strange answer, deep thought replied, " that is definitely the answer. i think the problem is that you have never actually known what the right question is. " right questions indeed, research is largely about asking the right questions. often the answer to the right questions would need good data. about data, the mathematician and physicist henri poincare has said, " science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones ; but a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house. " as the world changes, our questions change, our data change, and our analyses change. when i look at the program for today and tomorrow,