of local currency bond market effectively mobilize long - term capital and mitigate currency mismatch risk. increased use of local currency helps reduce exchange rate and currency mismatch risks. fifth, the green development philosophy will be practiced. we welcome the endorsement and signing of bri green investment principles by enterprises and financial institutions and hope to see more green projects that are ecologically, environmentally and climate friendly and the development and increased use of green financial instruments. at the same time, it is necessary to enhance transparency and information disclosure of data on carbon emission, emission reduction, and etc. financial connectivity supports the smooth and sustainable development of bri, and quality development of the bri requires an open and market based investment and financing system. i invite you to contribute your proposals and wisdom, participate in and promote investment and financing cooperation for the belt and road. i wish the forum a success. thank you. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches

economic growth would have been considerably slower, inflation would have been lower and unemployment higher. the one - sided, negative presentation of the consequences of the ecb ’ s policies is misleading. all in all, germany has benefited from the ecb ’ s monetary policy. you are saying that savers are not being expropriated at all. but the ecb ’ s negative interest rate policy effectively means that we can forget about traditional forms of investment such as savings accounts or life insurance policies. at the same time, people are being advised to provide for their retirement. how are they supposed to do that? if the ecb were to increase interest rates in the current environment, it would be harmful for everyone – not least for savers. i can ’ t give people any investment tips. but there ’ s no doubt that, in today ’ s interest rate environment, it is not especially advisable to put all your funds in savings or time deposit accounts. politicians also have a duty to inform citizens about the alternatives to 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches interest rate products. what do you think of german finance minister olaf scholz ’ plans to introduce a tax on share transactions? this measure is mainly politically motivated. from a economic point of view, i see it rather critically. however, the plan is on such a small scale that it will not really change the financial world. another major criticism is that the ecb ’ s policy has created a situation in which weak firms are being kept alive like zombies thanks to low interest rates. do you feel that you are unjustly coming under attack on this point too? the share of unprofitable firms has actually declined over the past few years. that runs counter to the theory of “ zombification ”. all the same, concerns about this issue highlight the need to aspire to sound regulation of the banking sector. weak banks are more likely to extend loans to weak firms. thanks to pressure from ecb banking supervision, the share of non - performing loans on banks ’ balance sheets has fallen sharply. that is an important step in the right direction. you have spoken in favour of tighter regulations governing sovereign bonds held on banks ’ balance sheets. the initiative appears to have foundered on italy. the fact that banks hold sovereign bonds is not the problem, it ’ s rather the concentration of their domestic sovereign bonds. italian banks primarily hold italian government bonds, german banks hold german bonds. one lesson from the euro debt crisis