the united states, the growing role of the banking sector in the economy : they all made it clear that a sound functioning of the banking system was too important to be arranged informally. in this respect it is noteworthy that supervision on the insurance sector was formalised even further back in time and exists almost 80 years now. but, of course, in the decades that have passed since then the financial environment has kept on changing, and with it the challenges that supervisors face. two trends have been particularly prominent in the past decades. the first is the enormous increase in cross - border activities made possible by the liberalisation of capital markets. the second is the blurring of the borderlines between banking, insurance and securities activities. these fundamental developments are the driving force behind the increasing need for convergence of supervisory practices across borders and sectors. let me illustrate by looking at our experiences in the netherlands. the international dimension of our major financial institutions has increased dramatically. as a result, in some cases nowadays more than half of assets and profits are related to activities in foreign countries. there are no signs that the internationalisation of the financial industry will slow down, rather on the contrary. in a world where national financial systems and institutions are increasingly dependent upon one another, it is obviously crucial for financial stability that high and comparable supervisory standards are maintained everywhere. this has long been recognised in the field of banking regulation. indeed, it was reflected in the establishment and the work of the basel committee, as well as in the work of the european committees in this field. in this context i would like to express my great respect for the leadership shown by bill mcdonough in steering the ship ‘ basel ii ’ through stormy seas to a save haven. this difficult task could not be in better hands than those of a former us navy officer! importantly, as part of basel ii, there is wide recognition that besides having convergence in regulation, it is equally important that supervisory practices ( the implementation of the rules! ) converge. the creation of the accord implementation group by the basel committee, and the work being done by the groupe de contact in europe reflect this understanding. it is important to keep in mind that the importance of cross - border convergence is not confined to the banking industry. it equally applies to other parts of the financial sector, such as insurance. this brings me to the other main trend that i mentioned, i. e., the blurring of the borderlines between banking, insurance and securities activities. here too, the

this industry. since 2011, the sector has been experiencing continued growth, driven by both stay - over and cruise tourism. for instance, in 2014, 1. 1 million tourists – both stay - over visitors and cruise passengers – visited curacao, representing a 3. 2 % growth compared to 2013. this positive development in the tourism industry over the past four years is attributable to, among other things, an increase in our room capacity with the construction of new hotels, increased airlift, and more marketing efforts to promote curacao as a tourist destination. however, a comparison of our growth figures with those of other caribbean destinations suggests we have not yet reached our potential. for example, while curacao recorded a mere 2. 5 % growth in 2014, stay - over tourism in aruba grew by 9. 5 % and sint maarten recorded a growth of 7. 1 %. this begs the question of why we cannot sustain stronger growth in stayover tourism. to answer this question and increase growth, we can draw on the experiences in the region. if we are to sustain stronger economic growth overall, ladies and gentlemen, achieving higher growth in the tourism sector is indispensable. during the past decade, curacao ’ s economic growth averaged a mere 0. 6 % per year. meanwhile, unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, remains unacceptably high. in the period preceding 10 – 10 – 10, there were good reasons to think that a period of stronger economic growth could be sustained. as part of the constitutional restructuring, holland provided us with debt relief, lowering the burdensome debt - to - gdp ratio to a healthy 35 %. the interest expenses of the public sector declined to naf. 50 million from the towering figure of naf. 350 million. government could now issue bonds under the same modalities as the dutch government, thereby implicitly achieving a aaa rating for its bonds. meanwhile, our foreign exchange reserves reached historic highs of nearly naf. 2, 7 billion. the constitutional restructuring also meant that the wasteful duplication of the double layer of government was eliminated leading to a more manageable public sector and thus public finance. these developments led to much optimism and hence a favorable investment climate sufficient to withstand the impact of the great recession. curacao was among the very few countries that managed to record growth in the aftermath of the developments of 2008. however, as the old adage goes, not all that can be