% - what a difference from when i talked to you two years ago. the currency is now at around 42 baht to the dollar, which some people consider weak. yet when compared to the 22 competitor countries, it has not much depreciated in the last two years. exports being our only area of sunshine, we have to make sure that the increasing exports are maintained until such time that investment or consumption is taking place normally and this can only be done with a low interest rate and a competitively priced baht. for this reason, it is our belief that the low short - term interest rate, coupled with the long - term interest rate of the same level as the eu and the us, is a correct strategy that we will try to maintain. inflation is still low, around 2 % headline and less than 1 % core. this looks like a good level of economic numbers to nurse and nurture an economy that is still weak and recovering with a capacity utilization of only 54 %. astute investors will i think see all this and invest in the country just as they did two years ago when i lowered interest rate from the very high and unbearable level to the low level of today, against many contradictory advice from people who should know better. whilst nursing the economy though, let me emphasize that we intend to put in mechanisms to improve the sustainability of growth and stability, some of which occurrence i have outlined in this speech, and others we are working on as we learn more and more about the economy and improve the accuracy and speed of our data collection and dissemination system. ladies and gentlemen. in ending my statement let me recall that i began by stating that we still have plenty of problems. at least we are no longer underestimating them. we have especially uncertain government with general elections coming up very fast. we have not effected the management change in our financial institution needed for the organization truly to absorb modern technologies. the bank of thailand act as well as the financial institutions act have not yet been passed by parliament. the latter was designed to facilitate change to financial institutions. the former was to make the bank of thailand independent or some degree of it depending on what will get through parliament in the end. there are different opinions on this - on what the parliament will want, on what the government wants, and on what the bank of thailand wants. but among central bankers, it is well known that the independence needed to execute a sensible monetary policy cannot just be legislated. it must

precisely stand today in improving regulation and oversight? • at their meetings in november 2008 and april 2009, heads of states of the g20 countries have agreed on what are the most important challenges for improving regulation and oversight : ( i ) strengthening transparency and accountability, ( ii ) enhancing sound regulation, ( iii ) promoting integrity in financial markets, ( iv ) reinforcing international cooperation and ( v ) reforming the international financial institutions. • overall, improvements in accounting, capital regulation and macro - prudential supervision feature high on the agenda. the leaders of the g20 called on the imf and fsb ( financial stability board ) to produce guidelines on how national authorities can assess the systemic importance of financial institutions, markets, or instruments. • over the past months good progress has been made in the various areas and the momentum needs to be maintained to establish a sound regulatory framework. work has been completed on a number of issues ( e. g. enhancements of basel ii, as mentioned below ) while other areas still need more consideration before they will be finalised by the end of 2009 or at the beginning of 2010. • the basel committee on banking supervision ( bcbs ), which is the driving force regarding initiatives in the area of micro - prudential regulation, issued in july 2009 a final package with measures to improve the basel ii framework. • on accounting the iasb ( international accounting standards board ) is taking various initiatives and shows openness to collaboration with regulatory authorities. a couple of important projects are under way. • but significant challenges remain. again : international bodies and governments must not lose momentum in their efforts to strengthen financial regulation and supervision. all the aforementioned issues equally deserve due consideration and should be addressed as a matter of urgency. the world economy after the crisis the crisis is not over yet. however, it is worthwhile discussing some preliminary reflections about the world after the crisis. • first, beyond these regulatory and supervisory challenges, a successful crisis resolution will also impinge on economic structures world wide. the global growth model of the last 15 years has failed. we have seen an exceptionally long period of strong growth in the world economy, but that growth was based on large and unsustainable global imbalances. for growth to be sustained, it must be more broadly balanced, both geographically and across economic sectors. • second, the current crisis may dampen economic growth in the future, reduce growth in the capital stock and thereby lead to a prolonged reduction in the level of output