tarisa watanagase : prospects and challenges for the thai economy in dinner talk by dr tarisa watanagase, governor of the bank of thailand, at the british chamber of commerce, bangkok, 30 november 2009. * * * distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, i would like to thank the british chamber of commerce for inviting me to be here tonight. it is my pleasure to join you once again at this prominent annual gathering. last year we had a fruitful discussion on “ what determines the future of the thai economy ”. if you may recall, i imparted on the audience some words of wisdom for all policymakers, which is to smooth short - term pain, and to achieve long - term gain. last year ’ s speech took care of the latter part, in which the key message was a call for collective efforts to raise the economy ’ s potential output in order to achieve sustainable long - run prosperity. we, however, did not spend much time on the former part as we were yet to witness the complete fallout from the collapse of lehman brothers. today, we all know that our get - together last september was at the onset of the greatest economic contraction over the last 60 years. the collapse of lehman brothers on sep 15, 2008 created a gigantic shockwave in the world financial markets with its ripples subsequently evolving into an economic tsunami that wiped out so much economic wellbeing all over the world. its consequences are still being felt today and the focus of policymakers has, therefore, shifted to the immediate task of giving the economy a quick resuscitation and lifting it out of the short - term slump. after the crisis, foreign direct investments from the eurozone have dropped significantly. however, despite the weakness back home, the uk ’ s net fdi to thailand still managed to register a positive number of approximately 48 million usd for the first three quarters of 2009. it is, therefore, to our mutual benefit for the bcct to have a good understanding of the outlook and challenges for the thai economy from a policymaking standpoint. this will be the mission of my speech today and i would like to proceed in the following sequence : first, i would like to start by giving you an update on the current economic development ; second, i would attempt to draw an outlook for the thai economy for the year 2010 ; and third, i will outline the key challenges that await the thai economy going forward. ladies and gentlemen, as you

tarisa watanagase : creating sustainable financial inclusion welcome remarks by dr tarisa watanagase, governor of the bank of thailand, at 1st afi start - up committee meeting, bangkok, 10 july 2009. * * * deputy governor, director - general, dr. hannig, colleagues, it is a pleasure to welcome all of you to bangkok, which for some of you, i know is a long way from home. thank you for making such an effort to be here. i cannot tell you enough how much your presence and participation in this meeting is appreciated. though we have work to do this morning, i hope that you will also have a chance to enjoy your stay in bangkok, including our sight - seeing tour this afternoon. at the afi public announcement back in april where president babatz and i had a chance to address the meeting as members of our start - up committee, i was delighted to see the kind of positive response and enthusiasm shown by policy makers from a broad spectrum of countries. many of whom, i learned, have decided to jump on board with us, making afi membership grow to more than fifty countries, worldwide. this only confirms that among many agenda laid on the table in international policy forums today, financial inclusion is the one agenda that we can all agree and give our full support to. as i said in that meeting, there are challenges ahead that, together, we must address in a cooperative manner, namely creating sustainable financial inclusion and ensuring the linkage between greater financial access and improvement in wellbeing. please allow me to offer my initial thoughts on the subject. with wellbeing as the ultimate goal of policy makers, many policy building blocks need to be woven together. examples include policies on career development, education, macroeconomic stability and so on. while these policies do not necessarily fall under the mandates of financial regulators, efforts should be made to ensure that policy directions of all relevant institutions, government and private, are aligned. closer to our hearts though, are policies that aim to improve the poor ’ s capacity to be financially included. in this regard, i believe that there must be at least three key policy ingredients, namely financial access, financial literacy and consumer protection. first, for access, there is a need to ensure that the range of basic financial services provided can address financial needs of the poor in all important aspects of their lives. for instance, we need to consider an “ inclusive package ” of credits, savings, transfers, and insurance that