norman t l chan : a fascinating train journey speech by mr norman t l chan, chief executive of the hong kong monetary authority, at the cuhk ( the chinese university of hong kong ) business school master degree graduation ceremony 2015, hong kong, 21 november 2015. * * * professor michael hui, professor kalok chan, parents, graduates, ladies and gentlemen : 1. it is a great honour to be invited to attend today ’ s graduation ceremony. it is also a great pleasure to be back to cuhk, where i spent the most beautiful part of my life as a student. there were so many fond memories and i cannot tell you how much i have missed my campus life even though i have graduated for nearly 40 years. 2. my fellow graduates, today is a memorable and joyful occasion not only for you, but also for your parents, your family, your loved ones and your friends. you have all worked very hard and gone through many rounds of examinations and challenges before you can be here today on this occasion. you must feel very proud and wish to tell everybody that “ i have made it ”. my heartfelt congratulations to you all : you have made it. you have received a master degree that provides you with the knowledge and skills that are badly needed and sought after in the modern era of business and finance. so many of you may think that you have earned a train ticket for a smooth journey to the place you are destined to go : success. is it so? 3. i am not sure if i know the answer, but let me depict a different scenario for you to think about. let ’ s say you have a train ticket that would enable you to go through the admission gate of the train station and reach the train platform. when you are there you immediately realise that there are many trains waiting to depart. your ticket doesn ’ t really tell you which train you should board and the signs on the trains are not clear either. so you will have to decide which train you should get on, without knowing whether this particular train is indeed the right one that can take you to your desired destination. but this is not the worst part. when you get on the train, you find that there are already lots of people there and that there is no seat assigned to you. all the window seats have been occupied. so you have to struggle to find a seat for yourself. and this is not the end of the story. 4. after you have settled

in other european countries with higher wage levels. opening up to foreign entrants and international trade as well as lifting entry barriers to various professional jobs should help induce greater competition and reduce the power of local oligopolies. a strengthened competition authority is also a useful tool, and its increased activity is certainly welcome. to sum up greece, as the other eu countries, is facing its domestic problems but also the challenges arising from the unprecedented rapid globalization. developments so far shows that greece is responding successfully by recording the second highest growth rate, over 4 % on average since 1996, in the euroarea and more than twice as high as the euroarea average. however, the continuation of this successful record requires sustained efforts towards budget consolidation and simplifying bureaucracy. indeed, provided policies remain focused on promoting the necessary structural reforms and that there are no disorderly upheavals on the international front, the greek economy should continue to perform well.