arise, i will continue to seek assistance and advice from academia. i believe that if scholars can provide policy recommendations through their research and if the bank of korea can incorporate them into our policymaking process, korea's monetary policy can advance even further. one unfortunate reality is that during personal meetings with young scholars, when i ask them to conduct research on these topics, their responses aren't always as i expect. they explain that their research is only recognized as a scholarly achievement when it is published in international journals. unfortunately, it seems that papers that focus on the korean economy face some difficulty in being accepted, causing scholars here to shy away from such research. it is disheartening that at a time when highquality research on our own economy is urgently needed, talented young professors are reluctant to engage in it due to its lack of recognition. although it may seem like an unsolicited suggestion, i do believe it is time for economic associations to consider ways to address this unfortunate reality. i apologize for this long speech. i sincerely wish all of you good health and prosperity throughout the year, and i express my hopes for the continuous development of korea's economic community. thank you. 4 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches

if we do not take external factors into account too much, there is a possibility that the neutral interest rate will decline in the long run driven by internal factors such as demographic shifts due to the low birthrate and the population aging. contrastingly, there is a view that developed economies, especially the u. s., might see a reversal in the downtrend of their neutral interest rate as fiscal deficits are expected to widen, investment demand to increase significantly in response to climate change, and productivity to rise due to technological innovations, such as ai. in an open economy heavily influenced by external factors, how the neutral interest rate is determined when internal and external factors work in different directions is a key element in determining future monetary policy. so we would like to see some further academic research on this issue. preparing for digital bank runs 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches the fourth topic concerns improvements to the central bank lending facility in preparation for the potential occurrence of a digital bank run unfolding more rapidly than anticipated. the most valuable lesson learned from the svb collapse last year was that large - scale bank runs can spread very rapidly in a digitalized financial market, and that deposits are not a stable funding source anymore. based on this lesson, the bank of korea announced its'reorganization of the bok's lending facility'last july. to be specific, the bank came up with reorganization to lower the loan interest rate and to expand the scope of eligible collateral in an attempt to enhance accessibility to liquidity adjustment loans, the equivalent of the u. s. fed's discount window. regarding this matter, two more tasks still remain. the first is about the inclusion of nonbank financial institutions ( nbfis ). although the proportion and the role of such nbfis have been steadily growing across financial markets, it remains challenging for the bank of korea to implement inspections of them and request documents from them under the current bank of korea act. therefore, it is necessary to conduct studies on how collaboration between the bok and the government should evolve in terms of supervision and investigation, in order to be able to add nbfis to the list of eligible entities for liquidity adjustment loans. the second issue is to strengthen the function of liquidity adjustment loans, a standing facility. under the current bok act, the bank cannot accept loans receivable from banking institutions as collateral during normal times. taking loans receivable as acceptable collateral is only possible when there is a need for