latter. notwithstanding central bank efforts at anchoring long - term rate expectations, it seems difficult to imagine that a reduction in global liquidity – at a time when non - resident demand for us bonds, in particular, has been waning – would have no significant impact on us or core european yields. international estimates of “ term premiums ” embedded in longer - term bond yields did suggest that quantitative easing policies had compressed these premiums to unusually low levels ; in turn, as prospects for an unwinding of quantitative easing emerged, they started to normalize. furthermore, term bis central bankers ’ speeches premiums have shown some correlation across both developed and emerging bond markets, in particular since they began to rise from may 2013 onwards. 4. the case for ( still ) investing in emerging markets risks hanging over emerging market assets, however, do not mean that the case for investing in such assets is closed. first of all, while the growth out - performance of emerging countries relative to the developed world has been dwindling, this should not obscure the fact that the gap, while narrowing, remains positive, and that emerging markets remain the biggest contributors to global growth. demographic trends, productivity gains, increases in the stock of capital remain conducive to a stronger growth performance of emerging market countries in the medium to long term. even countries that have shown a relatively strong degree of convergence with living standards of the developed world can still out - perform the latter, as the case of korea and taiwan shows. similarly, emerging countries continue to display, on balance, better fiscal or external metrics than their developed world counterparts, whether one looks at current account balances, public deficits or ratios of public and private debt to gdp. rather than the developments following mr bernanke ’ s comments in may 2013 representing an “ emerging market crisis ”, as some may want us to believe, what is probably a more correct characterization of the developments is a correction or re - pricing in the wake of expected normalization of global monetary policy and uncertainty around the speed of such normalization. what seems to further underpin the emerging markets investment case is much stronger fundamentals when compared to previous episodes of emerging markets coming under pressure, such as in the late 1990s, or even more recently in 2008. substantial progress has been made in the last two decades towards more flexible exchange rates, reserves have been accumulated on a grand scale, fiscal positions are healthier than in many advanced economies, all of these making emerging markets overall

as reflected in the world bank ’ s latest logistics performance index. thailand has, therefore, been a natural gateway that links extra - regional economies to asean markets. thailand has advantages to be a hub for regional headquarters of multinational companies ; a hub for logistics and distribution activities ; a sourcing hub for regional markets ; and a financial hub for regional markets. however, to remain competitive as a regional hub is a challenging task. bis central bankers ’ speeches 14. to remain as the preferred hub and entry point of the region, we perceive an opportunity for investment from china which has the advantage in capital, construction capacity and technology. as the advantage of low cost factor of productions is rapidly declining, china is facing an urgent need to re - orient supply chains through thailand to enter asean and the greater mekong subregion ( gms ) in particular. china and thailand should therefore make every effort to grasp this opportunity and construct win - win solutions for both sides. ladies and gentlemen, 15. let me conclude that china economic prosperity and advancement provides wide range of untapped opportunities for thailand. they are right here where we are now, in our region. we should seize it and not miss it. and i am confident that so long as we work hand in hand with china, unite together, and embrace the merit of economic integration, the synergy of the two will surely give its fruit on the growing tree. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches