efficiency to resilience. this is not necessarily bad, knowing what we now know about our vulnerabilities. building resilience is not about retreating behind our respective borders. doing so will only diminish our collective resilience to shocks, not enhance it. resilience is not achieved through insulation or in - shoring. if every country were to try to grab what it could, we will all end up with less. the more effective way to build resilience in a post - covid world is through greater diversification of supplies and building redundancies in global value chains. the pandemic has shown how important it is for countries to keep markets open, trade flows smooth, and supply lines intact. but each country will do this only if it has an assurance that others will do the same. we must therefore make a renewed commitment to keeping supply chains open. we must coordinate our actions to minimise disruption and enhance recovery. we must agree on common protocols for re - opening our borders in a safe manner, lifting travel and trade restrictions, and restoring air and shipping routes. we cannot wait for global leadership or multilateral agreements to do this. like - minded countries must come together, make things happen, and blaze a trail for others to come along. singapore has been part of such efforts to keep global supply chains open. together with australia, brunei darussalam, canada, chile, laos, myanmar, nauru, new zealand, the united arab emirates, and uruguay, singapore issued last month a joint ministerial statement to underline our commitment to maintain open supply chains during the ongoing covid - 19 pandemic. importantly, it contains a commitment to refrain from export controls, tariffs and nontariff barriers, and remove any trade restrictive measures on essential goods. singapore is also in active discussion with various countries to develop bilateral arrangements for safe travel between them. we are pleased that our first ‘ fast lane ’ arrangement has been launched with china - to facilitate essential business and official travel between our two countries. arrangements like these, with trusted protocols and agreed measures, will build confidence in managing the risks of importation of the covid - 19 virus, and allow countries to re - open to trade and travel. strengthening digital connectivity the second area countries must co - operate on is relatively new but is growing rapidly in importance – digital connectivity. we all know how the covid - 19 pandemic has accelerated the use of digital services. amid safe

david dodge : summary of the latest monetary policy report opening statement by mr david dodge, governor of the bank of canada, at a press conference following the release of the monetary policy report update, ottawa, 27 january 2005. * * * today, we released the update to our october monetary policy report. the update reviews economic and financial trends in the context of canadaa€™s inflation - control strategy. the outlook for the canadian economy continues to be shaped by global developments, including the realignment of world currencies. the near - term outlook for the global economy is a touch weaker than projected in the october report, but more solidly based because of somewhat lower oil prices and greater confidence in the momentum of the u. s. economy. we expect the canadian economy to operate a little further below its full production capacity in 2005 than was anticipated at the time of the last report, largely reflecting the dampening effects on aggregate demand of the recent appreciation of the canadian dollar. for 2006, we project growth to pick up to slightly more than 3 per cent, consistent with returning the economy to its production capacity in the second half of the year, and returning core inflation to 2 per cent around the end of 2006. in line with this revised outlook, the pace of reduction in monetary stimulus is likely to be slower than that envisioned in the october report. there are both upside and downside risks around the outlook, which continue to relate to the adjustment to global developments. as circumstances change, we always need to be ready to re - assess the policy implications.