political situations, and their regulatory and corporate environments. they will surely compete amongst themselves to gain market share and critical mass, and anchor in asia some of business which presently goes to london and new york. but in my view they also have considerable scope for co - operation, as each will occupy a distinct market niche and none can dominate in all aspects of finance. singapore will never have the advantage of tokyo's large economic base. nor do we have hong kong's physical proximity to china. but we seek to provide a world - class regulatory environment that responds to the needs of global markets and global institutions, and the most efficient infrastructure for businesses to use as a platform for all of asia. singapore plays host to some 6, 000 multinational corporations and the financial institutions that are their global advisers, many of which use singapore as their regional headquarters. and our strategic location at the heart of southeast asia and within 7 hours of key markets in northeast asia, south asia, and australia positions us well to serve as a financial centre for all of asia. singapore while the external environment is not within singapore's control, our strategies and policies are. we believe that the right strategies and policies will help us to capitalise on opportunities and overcome disadvantages arising from our size. there are no secrets to the strategies, because the factors for success are not unique to singapore. the challenge is in their execution and implementation. here are five things that we have set out to do in order to excel as a financial centre in the new economy. enhance business environment first, we are seeking to further enhance our conducive pro - business environment. economic and political stability, an efficient and impartial legal system, comprehensive and up - to - date market infrastructure, and fiscal discipline that allows low taxes are key preconditions, more important than special incentives for the financial sector. singapore has established a reputation for delivering these preconditions, which we will maintain and improve upon in future. build talent pool second, we are building up our talent pool. in a knowledge - intensive industry like financial services, singapore will not get anywhere without world - class talent. we are making a concerted effort to attract foreign talent who can make a contribution to singapore, and to integrate them into our economy and society. we are also nurturing home talent to its full potential through a good education system for the young and ongoing training opportunities for those in the workforce. as asian companies begin to use more complex strategies and products

believe a lot of this frustration is entirely justified. the greek public was unprepared for the sacrifices that it now has to make because successive greek governments gave the impression to the greek citizens that they could be living a lifestyle that they should have known was beyond the means of the country. frustration, i think, is entirely justified. at the same time i trust that now the situation is clear ; there is much better information about the necessary adjustment and the greek people will persevere. q. what can the ecb do to help greece? is there anything else to do apart from eased collateral requirements for greek government debt? if i may correct you, i would not say that we have eased collateral requirements. what we have done is eased the reliance on credit rating agencies for evaluating the collateral for a very specific reason. this is because our assessment of the sustainability of the greek debt situation and the path of the greek economy is different from what is reflected in credit ratings. we have made our own assessment in the case of greece. in terms of your question on how the ecb can help, as you know the ecb is helping by providing advice and by being present in the discussions that are associated with the programme that involves the imf and the european commission in liaison with the ecb. but beyond that, it is not the ecb ’ s role to have additional involvement. what we have in the case of the european union is additional responsibilities for crisis management, which are responsibilities of the governments in the euro area, not the responsibility of the ecb. q. the irish central bank has an emergency liquidity assistance programme. do you think there could be a similar one for greece or is there actually already one in place? i would not comment on emergency liquidity assistance. this is a national responsibility that each national central bank in the euro area may apply as is necessary in their own context. q. cypriot banks hold a sizeable quantity of greek debt. how damaging or potentially damaging could that exposure be? could the central bank have taken any steps to limit banks exposure to a single borrower? with respect to the exposure of cypriot banks to greek debt, we have examined the situation and we have come to the conclusion that even though there is exposure in our banking system, that exposure is manageable because our banks are very well capitalized. bis central bankers ’ speeches so even in the highly unlikely situation, if you wanted to run the counter factual, for example, of imposing losses