clean city with not a lot of garbage on the streets, which is in sharp contrast to the widespread littering of 30 – 40 years ago. many people believe that the reason for this welcomed change is the improvement by the government in its streetcleaning procedures as well as enhanced efforts to catch and fine people who are found littering. but this can only explain a small part of the change. the key driving force, in my view, that makes hong kong streets much cleaner today is the change in people ’ s values. these days, most hong kong citizens do not litter the streets not because they are afraid of being caught by the health inspectors but because they don ’ t think it is right or proper to do so. this change of culture or values is the result of education of the young generation and the “ clean hong kong campaign ” that was launched by the hong kong government back in the 1970s. if this had not been the case, our streets would still be filthy even if we had ten times more health inspectors and street cleaners. in the context of building the financial services sector that befits a world - class ifc, i have explained earlier why it is very important to have professional competence and good control. however, it is equally, if not more, important that our financial institutions and their practitioners uphold the right values that protect and serve the interests of the customers who make use of hong kong ’ s financial services. you may recall that in the movie wall street, michael douglas kept on saying : “ greed is good! ” when this kind of mindset, which puts the individuals ’ interests above the firm ’ s and the firm ’ s interests ahead of the client ’ s, becomes prevalent, it will inevitably lead to highly undesirable if not disastrous outcomes not just for the users but for the financial system as a whole. so while greed is probably an inherent part of human nature, a successful financial firm or an ifc must ensure that it can develop and cherish a culture and values that will restrain excessive greed in the interests of giving customers a fair deal. only in doing that will an ifc be able to sustain its position and competitive edge over a long period of time. we all understand that an ifc also represents a brand, a quality that customers trust in terms of efficiency, reliability and integrity. it takes bis central bankers ’ speeches decades or even centuries to build a brand, but only days to destroy it if any of the qualities of competence

je reste toutefois confiant. ma confiance n ’ est pas du “ wishful thinking ”, mais repose sur des faits objectifs : en premier lieu, je crois qu ’ il n ’ est pas dans l ’ interet des europeens de proceder a l ’ integration monetaire dans le desordre. certains pays - et je pense ici a l ’ allemagne - verraient certainement d ’ un mauvais oeil que l ’ introduction de l ’ euro entraine une degradation marquee de leur stabilite monetaire. il me parait evident que la bundesbank prendrait des contre - mesures si une speculation contre le mark devait se declencher. les allemands sont interesses a un euro fort. en deuxieme lieu, les europeens ont tout fait jusqu ’ ici pour convaincre les marches que l ’ integration monetaire sera ordonnee. les criteres de convergence et le pacte de stabilite sont autant de signaux indiquant que seuls des pays financierement sains pourront acceder a la monnaie unique. je crois qu ’ il se tiendront a cette ligne de conduite jusqu ’ a la decision finale. en troisieme lieu, en depit des evolutions recentes, c ’ est le dollar - non le franc suisse - qui absorbe les incertitudes de la construction europeenne. la monnaie americaine est vue par les placeurs comme la principale alternative, non notre monnaie qui, elle, se trouvera toujours dans le sillage des monnaies europeennes. quoi qu ’ il en soit, des risques de perturbations existent. en cas d ’ agitation des marches, nous ne serions pas sans moyens pour nous defendre. notre principale arme est la politique monetaire qui peut tenir compte des turbulences exterieures. un assouplissement de notre politique en cas d ’ appreciation du franc est possible - nous venons de le demontrer il y a