transformation. if we do not even have the requisite people to understand the risks involved and balance the competing objectives, our journey is going to be arduous. so, let me spend a few minutes to talk about capacity building. 27. with useful contributions from hkib and the industry, the hkma conducted a “ capacity building for future banking ” study last year to take stock of potential talent gaps that the banking industry will face. the study revealed notable skills gaps in fintech and green finance. these are the two key growth areas in the financial world. and their developments are evolving so fast that the skill sets of the existing workforce cannot keep pace with the latest industry needs. 28. this is a global issue, not unique to hong kong. so, we cannot just rely on attracting overseas talent to address the issue. 29. a more sustainable strategy is to build a large, deep financial talent pool locally. to do so, we have embarked on a new talent development strategy – “ connecting talent to the future ” – and a range of new initiatives to address the talent gaps in a more structured and targeted manner. our objective is to build a strong pipeline of future talent on the one hand, and develop a highly skilled local workforce on the other. 30. our new strategy is built on three “ connect ” directions. first, we have to better “ connect ” our younger generation to the banking industry so that they have a better idea of the abundant 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches career opportunities out there, especially in fintech and esg fields. we hope this would help attract more new blood to the industry. we are now organising a series of outreach and promotional events, like career talks and social media campaigns. we will also launch a virtual resource centre as a “ one - stop directory ” for various job types, career paths and training pathways in the industry. 31. it is never quantity over quality, as the quality of our future talent is also critical. to ensure our students are “ future ready ”, it is essential to enrich students ’ real - world experience. this can be achieved by forging closer ties between universities and the industry. 32. so, on top of the various internship programmes we have been organising, we have just launched the industry project masters network pilot scheme which provides internship opportunities to postgraduate students to work on real - life fintech projects of banks. another major initiative is the launch of a brand new future banking bridging programme in collaboration with

confidence and sentiment were weak. international predators, with meticulous preparation and organisation, launched an attack on the hong kong dollar and our financial markets. they first discreetly borrowed hong kong dollars and waited for the right moment to profit by short selling the currency and attacking our linked exchange rate system. at the same time, they built up substantial short positions in the stock and futures markets. these global predators also spread doomsaying through the hong kong media to stoke panic among hong kong people, creating an environment ripe for their short selling activities. the hang seng index ( hsi ) dived 50 % to 8, 000 in august 1998 from 16, 000 a year earlier and the predators boasted they would push down the hsi by another 50 % to 4, 000, which was an extremely low level. aggregating the earnings of all listed companies, when the hsi was at 8, 000, the price - earnings ratio was eight, and if the index fell another 50 %, the ratio would drop to just four. the hong kong sar government was facing a “ double - play ” by the predators – manipulation and profiteering in the money market and stock market through massive short - selling. it was a critical situation – not only were we confronted with a sharp fall in the stock market and great losses to shareholders, there were also systemic risks to our monetary system and financial markets. classical economics does not differentiate between big and small markets and assumes that market prices will not be manipulated by just a few players. reality, however, is different from theory. at that time, the market capitalisation of the hong kong stock market was only us $ 340 billion, a mere 3 % of the new york stock exchange ’ s us $ 10. 3 trillion. the predators were unable and hence did not choose to make their move on the big us markets, but were able to plunder hong kong ’ s mid - sized and open market with impunity. 5. however, on 14 august 1998, with the authorisation of the hong kong sar government and backed by the war chest of the exchange fund, the hkma intervened in the stock and futures markets through market operation to counteract the double - play by international predators. when the market operation was completed by the end of august, the hkma had used about hk $ 120 billion to acquire a vast amount of hong kong stocks, propelling the hsi from the pre - operation level of 6, 700 points to 7, 800 points