media and research - speeches philippines : toward soaring new heights date : may 16, 2022 occasion : citi virtual macro forum speaker : bsp governor benjamin e. diokno good day, everyone. thank you for inviting me to the citi virtual macro forum to share updates on the philippine economy. two years ago, in this same virtual roundtable discussion organized by citi, i expressed my confidence in the philippine economy ’ s strengths on three critical factors — pre - crisis fundamentals, emergency response, and structural / development reforms. now, i can tell you that we have weathered the unprecedented crisis during the past two years because of the country ’ s strong fundamentals, which were built through decades of continued implementation of structural reforms and sound macroeconomic management. the philippines is well on its way to full recovery. after the pandemic - driven recession in 2020, the economy grew by 5. 7 percent last year and sustained its robust momentum with an 8. 3 percent growth in the first quarter of 2022. now, our original growth target of 7 - 9 percent this year appears to be doable. the relaxation of mobility and activity restrictions for most of the country sustained growth as we are able to better control the spread of covid - 19. growth in the first quarter was broad - based. on the supply side, all sectors expanded, driven by industry at 10. 4 percent, followed by services at 8. 6 percent. on the expenditure side, growth was driven by private consumption which grew by 10. 1 percent, a stark reversal from the - 4. 8 percent in the same quarter a year ago, owing to much relaxed quarantine restrictions. investments and external trade performed well, too. the employment picture is close to its pre - pandemic level. from a peak of 17. 6 percent in april 2020, the unemployment rate is down to just 5. 8 percent in march this year. moreover, foreign direct investments reached an all - time high last year, growing by 54. 2 percent. in the first two months of the year, fdis were up by 8. 0 percent to usd1. 7 billion. manufacturing activity has strongly rebounded, with the purchasing managers ’ index hit 54. 3 in april - the highest in four years. both business sentiment and consumer outlook have improved. our business expectation survey shows broad improvements in outlook in the next quarter and year. all these came on the back of a whole - of - government approach to recovery

amando m tetangco, jr : working on asean governance standards speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( the central bank of the philippines ), at the financial sector forum on asean corporate governance scorecard, manila, 24 september 2014. * * * good morning everyone and welcome to the bangko sentral ng pilipinas. on behalf of the other members of the fsf – the heads of sec, ic and pdic – i also welcome everyone to this forum on the asean corporate governance scorecard or what we call acgs. the bangko sentral ng pilipinas, the securities and exchange commission, the insurance commission and the philippine deposit insurance corporation are pleased that representatives from various sectors have joined us this morning to know more about the acgs. this tells us that you and the institutions you represent similarly value corporate governance. as you and i know, good corporate governance is key to ensuring sustainable long - term growth. in this context, acgs is important – it deserves our time and full attention. a joint initiative of the asean capital markets forum and the asian development bank, the acgs evaluates the top publicly listed companies in five categories, based on the following weights : 10 % for rights of the shareholders ; 10 % for role of stakeholders ; 15 % for equitable treatment of shareholders ; 25 % for disclosure and transparency ; and 40 % for responsibilities of the board. benchmarked against international best practice, the acgs provides a standard rigorous methodology that can generate comparable information crucial to investors, fund managers, the private sector, the regulators and governments. at present, the acgs counts six participating asean countries : indonesia, malaysia, singapore, thailand, vietnam and the philippines. this program is being done in parallel with other efforts to promote asean as a competitive growth region. while the acgs country reports and assessments for 2013 – 2014 said the performance of asean publicly listed companies in applying recommended corporate governance principles is commendable, continuing improvements are called for. we agree. and all of us should strive to do so in our respective institutions, industries and sectors. good governance has to be a culture not only within institutions but across our country. at this point, i will share a number of our initiatives at the bangko sentral. over the years, we at the bangko sentral have been working on strengthening governance standards in banks. among others, proposed directors of banks are subject to