juyeol lee : opening address – bok - bis joint conference opening address by mr juyeol lee, governor of the bank of korea, at the bok - bis joint conference, seoul, 19 november 2018. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you today to this bok - bis joint conference. i would like to express my sincere gratitude to our keynote speaker, dr. emanuel monch, head of research at the deutsche bundesbank, and also to bis general manager agustin carstens and head of research hyun song shin, who will join us tomorrow. let me also thank all of our distinguished moderators, speakers and discussants. in 2016, the bis asian office suggested asia - pacific fixed income markets as a research theme, in recognition of the need to assess the role of such markets and their future development. the bis asian consultative council ( acc ), comprising the central banks in the asia - pacific region, also judged this work as timely and has been actively supporting it through the participation of its researchers. after an interim workshop held in hong kong in september last year, i am pleased that we have reached the final stage where we can share and discuss the results with each other at today ’ s conference. as you probably know, prior to the 1997 asian financial crisis, fixed income markets in the asiapacific region were underdeveloped while financial intermediation depended greatly upon shortterm bank borrowings. in such a case, domestic or external shocks that hinder the smooth rollover of loans can lead to a major crisis – something we learned the hard way. through this lesson, countries in the region have made great efforts to foster sound financial markets that can support stable economic growth. as a result, our region ’ s fixed income markets have developed remarkably : they are now bigger, more liquid, and more open. this fixed income market development in the region has brought about two positive changes. first, it has contributed significantly to the successful transition to interest rate - based monetary policy frameworks. fixed income markets are one of the most important channels through which the effects of policy rate adjustments are transmitted to the real economy. central banks are now able to assess market expectations more quickly by analyzing bond yields for different maturities, making their policies more effective. second, with greater bond investment from abroad, foreign capital is flowing in more diverse ways. it used to come in mostly through short - term bank borrowings or

the depth and liquidity, and therefore the stability of our region ’ s financial markets. ladies and gentlemen! the research papers to be presented at today ’ s conference reflect the serious thoughts and ideas of expert researchers on major issues. these include not only the development of fixed income markets in the asia - pacific region, but also the impacts of changing global risk preferences on emerging market capital flows, the determinants of fixed income market yields, and the relationship between the term structure of interest rates and macroeconomic variables. i hope that the research presented at today ’ s conference will spark vigorous debate and allow the sharing of diverse opinions that will help solve the financial and economic problems facing the asia - pacific region. thank you. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches