on asian bond fund ii, which aims at channelling a small portion of the very sizeable official reserves held by the asian economies back into the region. mr president, the bank is uniquely placed to lend support to the region in these efforts, in three ways. first, the bank can enlarge its technical assistance programme on capital market projects. in this connection, we are pleased to note the assistance the bank is already providing to the bond market initiatives that i have mentioned. secondly, the bank can structure its own debt issuance programme with this objective in mind, as exemplified by bank ’ s current efforts to issue local currency bonds in china and thailand. thirdly, the bank can encourage borrowers to issue bonds in conjunction with adb - financed projects through the provision of partial credit guarantees. thank you, mr president.

eddie yue : keynote speech - greater bay area fintech talent summit keynote speech by mr eddie yue, chief executive of the hong kong monetary authority, at the greater bay area fintech talent summit, hong kong, 27 november 2024. * * * distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. first of all, i would like to thank bloomberg for inviting me to the gba fintech talent summit and for their very strong commitment to equip our local students with fintech knowledge and opportunities in the greater bay area ( gba ). the hkma is very pleased to have been partnering with bloomberg and the hong kong united youth association ( hkuya ) on this landmark initiative for the last two years. this initiative aims at cultivating fintech talent to meet local demand, and this year it has successfully placed 300 students with more than 20 leading financial institutions in hong kong. i would like to extend my congratulations to all students for completing this programme successfully. i hope you have taken the opportunity to deepen your understanding of the industry and create useful connections with fintech professionals. the financial industry has always placed great importance on developing a sustainable supply of talent to support its long - term growth and success. with the vibrant development of the fintech ecosystem in hong kong, the banking sector has seen growing demand for skilled fintech professionals. in light of this, we will continue to work with the industry to identify the potential skills gap in future, and to enable the industry to adjust its talent development strategy in a timely way. in this dynamic and rapidly evolving market landscape, it is important to cultivate a sustainable pool of talent that can drive fintech development in hong kong, thereby maintaining our city's status as an international financial centre. the hkma has taken a two - pronged approach in our talent development strategy : the first is to enhance the skills of existing banking professionals and the second is to attract fresh talent, including yourselves, to the industry. on our initiatives to train and upskill existing practitioners, first, we have introduced the enhanced competency framework on fintech ( ecf - fintech ), and second, we have supported the government in launching the pilot scheme on training subsidy for fintech practitioners, and thirdly we have developed a broader range of fintech - related training courses with various training institutions. apart from training and upskilling our existing practitioners, we have also made concerted efforts to attract and nurture future - ready new talent. as part of