amando m tetangco, jr : the importance of microentrepreneurship keynote address by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of the central bank of the philippines ( bangko sentral ng pilipinas ), at the microentrepreneur of the year ( moty ) awarding ceremony, manila, 19 november 2008. * * * magandang hapon sa inyong lahat! ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered once again to celebrate, honor, and give recognition to our outstanding microentrepreneurs. their collective success in overcoming the difficulties inherent in microentrepreneurship serves as a powerful inspiration for all of us. their stories remind us that with vision, courage, passionate commitment, a persevering spirit, we can pursue and reach seemingly impossible goals even in the midst of a global economic slowdown and financial turmoil. and so, friends, let us show our appreciation for all our awardees by giving them a long round of applause. palakpakan po natin ang ating mga awardees! let us also thank the officers and staff of citi philippines headed by country officer sanjiv vohra for initiating and sustaining the citi microentrepreneur of the year awards which is now on its 6th year. with citi, this annual recognition of outstanding microentrepreneurs has been institutionalized. a round of applause please for citi. of course, we also salute the members of the working groups from the microfinance council of the philippines headed by rollie victoria, from the bangko sentral, from citi, and from other partner institutions. palakpakan din po natin sila. they had the privilege of seeing our successful microentrepreneurs up close and personal, but i am sure they had a difficult time narrowing down the list. i can say this with certainty because we who compose the national selection committee devoted long deliberations on each of the finalists. given the remarkable accomplishments of our finalists, it was a tough choice indeed. and so, this year, the members of the national selection committee decided to give three special awards on top of our eight major winners. friends, let us also reward the hardworking members of the national selection committee with a round of applause. ladies and gentlemen. the stories of our winners become even more significant when viewed against the backdrop of an increasingly difficult operating environment.

action framework which provides a time bound setting to deal with problem banks. • adopted measures to improve access of smes to financing through lower reserve requirements and relaxed - but still prudent - regulations on bank branching, risk weights, single borrower ’ s limit, connected lending and documentation. indeed, the continuing partnership between the bsp and the banking sector has produced very positive results in 2006. economic and monetary policy outlook moving forward, let me share with you our views on the likely economic prospects for 2007. with resilient personal consumption, strong exports performance and robust services and industry output, gdp growth is expected to rise to 5. 7 - 6. 5 percent for 2007. if our fiscal position continues to improve, we can look forward to stronger, more sustained long - term growth. inflation is seen to continue to slow down in 2007, with the government target of 4 - 5 percent likely to be achieved, in the absence of new shocks. nevertheless, there are certain risks to inflation that need to be carefully monitored and assessed, including oil prices, possible impact of el nino on agricultural output, wage adjustments, and possible liquidity expansion. the bsp will continue to keep a vigilant eye on these risks so that it could move pre - emptively against threats to price stability. on the external front, dollar inflows from ofw remittances and foreign investments are expected to remain strong. this should continue to boost our external payments position and enable us to further build up our international reserves. these conditions, in turn, underpin our expectations of a strong peso in 2007. in fact, we are now our reviewing foreign exchange regulations, with further liberalization as our goal. going forward, we will continue to support various legislative initiatives to foster the development of our financial markets, including the creation of a centralized credit information bureau system to improve the quality of financial information available to investors, enhance private sector access to credit, and minimize exposure to risks of financial intermediaries. we are hopeful that the bill will be approved by the bicameral committee and signed into law by the president as soon as possible. the bsp will also continue to support additional legislative initiatives to hasten the development of the philippine capital market, including the amendments to the bsp charter, corporate recovery act, revised company investment act, and the personal equity retirement act. in the banking sector, we expect further expansion of bank resources, improvement in banks asset quality through npl disposal,