, and sometimes conflicting, roles – namely, being policymaker, regulator, operator, and owner at the same time. the bill will set principles to dismantle these distinct roles into separate governing entities. the revision of the trade competition act will ensure a fairer and more competitive environment among business. lastly, the business securities act helps improve credit access for small and medium sized firms to funding by allowing inventories, machineries, and intellectual property as collateral. the second group of legal amendments aims to enhance productivity. there are four laws that might be of your interest. the licensing facilitation act helps acquiring permits easier and more transparent for all businesses. the royal decree on review of laws and regulations requires that all laws and regulations be reviewed once every five years to ensure that necessary adjustment be made to accommodate dynamic changes in business practices. the payment system bill is meant to replace the old governing laws and regulations that are dispersed under many different authorities, especially electronics and digital payments, and allow the bank of thailand to be the sole regulator in this field. the eastern economic corridor bill will establish a special economic zone across three provinces to attract investment in industries of the future with extensive infrastructure investments to support transport, logistics, and public utilities. the last group of legal reform is to strengthen long - term sustainability. the fiscal responsibility bill will impose fiscal discipline through improvement in public spending transparency and governance of overall fiscal management. more importantly, future governments will find it very difficult to conduct open - ended populist policies, as the law will require the government to calculate costs and identify sources of fund ex - ante. the introduction of the inheritance tax act and the land and building tax bill will augment prudent spending by expanding the government ’ s ability to collect revenue and ensure a better tax structure to deal with future liabilities, promote greater fiscal balance, and reduce wealth inequality. all these developments will promote administrative efficiency and improve ease of doing business in thailand. putting the aforementioned laws into practice will change thailand ’ s business and financial landscape regardless of which political party steps into power after the next election. they will contribute to better governance and equality, higher productivity, and long - term sustainability of the country. however, i should point out that, as for all reform initiatives, effectiveness in execution will be the bottom line of their success. ladies and gentlemen, as for the bank of thailand, we also play an important role in upgrading thailand ’ s financial infrastructure and regulatory reform within our responsibility. in the

policy maintaining economic balance is key to the making of monetary policy, as it is one of the most important pre - requisites of macroeconomic stability. in practice, this means that as the economic activity returns to normalcy, monetary policy stance must similarly be normalized. failure to do so will add undue pressure on inflation, ultimately posing risks to macroeconomic stability. thus this year, the monetary policy committee ( mpc ) will need to continue normalizing monetary policy. the amount and pacing of policy interest rate adjustments this year will be consistent with the outlook for growth and inflation as well as the surrounding risks. as always, the policy decisions will be grounded on informed and prudent deliberation by the mpc, with an aim of keeping core inflation within the target band as mandated by law. because many shocks, both of temporary and structural nature, cannot be foreseen, it is difficult to say beforehand what level of policy interest rate should be appropriate for this year. however, sustained negative real interest rates are usually not consistent with fostering economic balance. bis central bankers ’ speeches timely adjustments in policy interest rate will help keep inflation pressure in check, which in turn lead to low and sustainable borrowing costs in the long run. the bank of thailand has taken steps to enhance the transparency of monetary policy making, by announcing the mpc voting result together with the statement for the first time early this month. the first minutes of the meeting has also been released this morning. it is hoped that these information will help businesses and households understand the rationales behind the mpc policy decisions, and enable them to make better and more informed economic decisions. exchange rate policy the bank of thailand adheres to our policy framework, where exchange rate is not a policy instrument and hence is market - determined. however, recognizing the risks of high volatility in capital movements looking ahead, the bank of thailand has followed a three - part approach. the first is to develop a systematic capital flows master plan, with sequencing appropriate for the development of the thai economy and the evolving international financial market. part of this plan is to relax regulations that hinder thai residents from investing abroad, in order to foster more balanced capital flows. secondly, the bank of thailand will encourage the use of appropriate financial hedging instruments, in order to strengthen the risk management capability of the private sector, especially the small and medium - sized businesses. given the possibility of more volatility in the financial market looking ahead including the