set exemplary standards, and become pioneers in developmental activities, ensuring continued progress of your districts and the state of karnataka. as you may be aware, the reserve bank of india is celebrating 90 years of its foundation this year. looking ahead to the next decade, our journey towards rbi @ 100, we have formulated strategies aimed at positioning the reserve bank as a model central bank of the global south. one of our key objectives is to deepen financial inclusion by enhancing the accessibility, availability, and quality of financial services for all segments of society. i urge each of you to actively support us in realizing this vision by contributing to inclusive growth, ensuring that no one is left behind in accessing essential financial services, and fostering economic empowerment at the grassroots level. i would like to leave you with a quote from rashtrakavi kuvempu ( an extract from his epic work " malegaalli madumagau " ) : illi yaaroo mukhyaralla no one is precious here yaroo amukhyaralla no one is unimportant here illi ellakkoo ide artha everything has significance here yavudoo alla vyartha nothing is useless 4 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches! neerellevoo theertha! all the water is holy! in the context of today's gathering, it would mean : all groups of people are equally important and should be financially included ; every effort taken for financial inclusion is meaningful and nothing goes wasted. with this i would like to end with my best wishes to each one of you. thank you! 1 jaitly, s., thangallapally, l. s., & microsave. ( 2022 ). decoding government support to women entrepreneurs in india. in niti aayog, www. microsave. net [ report ]. https : / / www. niti. gov. in / sites / default / files / 2023 - 03 / decoding - government - support - towomen - entrepreneurs - in - india. pdf ( last accessed on september 16, 2024 ) 5 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches

8 per cent in 2003 and 2004. it is widely recognized that the contribution of asia to global growth has generally been very impressive in recent years, and may continue to be so, for several years in future. the current account on the balance of payments has been in surplus for many if not all asian economies. the private capital flows to the emerging asia have recovered from an outflow of us $ 52 billion in 1998 to an inflow of us $ 151 billion in 2004. at the same time, the reserve build up in the region has been significant. in the backdrop of the resilience of the asian economies and their ability to bounce back after a deep financial crisis, there is resurgence of confidence in their future. strategies in the form of having mutual swap agreements under the chiang mai initiative, to guard against speculative attacks, could now be enlarged, and could also be supplemented by greater co - operation and co - ordination in the exchange rate regimes and policies. indeed, from a longer - term perspective, we must note that asia is appropriately poised in terms of abundance in factors of production – labour and capital – particularly labour, as the demography is clearly in favour of asia to sustain a long - term growth. the emergence of surplus factors of production in asia combined with financial strength would impact prices, wages and exchange rates. asian economies could explore strategies to evolve a system whereby they could not only prevent and, if necessary, manage financial crises on their own to the extent possible, but also play a more active role in co - ordinating policies with other major developed economies. these arrangements could be consistent with continued and an active role of imf in international monetary cooperation. 2 / 4 it is useful to recall that the acute sense of interdependence aroused by the financial “ contagion ” in 1997 convinced the asian economies of the importance of economic cooperation, one that reflected their common interests and priorities as well as strengthened their voice in the global arena. among others, this led to two parallel movements – one in south asia in the form of the saarc initiative and the other in east asia reflecting the asean + 3 initiative. the idea of having an integrated financial system so as to provide viable ‘ safety net ’ in times of crisis germinated. as a result, the idea of “ asean + 3 ” initiative1 gained prominence. this, in turn, was reflected in two correlated developments. first, in 2000, asean + 3 countries mutually agreed to form a network of