nestor a espenilla, jr : maintaining a conducive macroeconomic environment speech by mr nestor a espenilla, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the european chamber of commerce of the philippines ( eccp ) membership luncheon event, makaty city, 25 october 2017. * * * mr. guenter taus, eccp president, distinguished officers and members of the eccp, special guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. the european union ( eu ) with its 28 member states and 512 million citizens forms the second largest economic market of the world. closer to home, 15 percent of philippine total exports go to the eu, making it a key trading partner. a major source of direct investments comprising roughly 12 percent of total gross placement of foreign direct investment comes from the eu. moreover, nearly 12 percent of total cash remittances from filipino overseas workers originate from the eu.... it cannot be doubted that the eu is a formidable economic partner of the philippines. with this important relationship in mind, and with a view of building stronger ties, cooperation and collaboration, it is my pleasure and privilege to be your guest speaker at today ’ s membership luncheon. i thank the european chamber of commerce of the philippines ( eccp ) for the invitation and welcome this opportunity to speak about our initiatives at the bangko sentral ng pilipinas which are aimed at promoting a conducive business climate. i am also pleased to share in greater detail how the philippines offers significant investment prospects as the economy is expected to grow strongly in the next few years. as long - term investors in the country, you may have witnessed how the macroeconomic stability we now enjoy was brought about by significant structural reforms pursued through the years. the list of reforms is long and the scope wide ranging. it is because of these reforms that price and financial stability have been achieved and maintained. since adopting the inflation targeting framework in 2002, inflation has generally been kept low and stable. this is our source of credibility as a monetary authority. to sustain the positive growth and inflation dynamics in the country, the bsp enhanced the implementation of inflation targeting through the adoption of the interest rate corridor ( irc ) system. the irc enhances the link between the bsp ’ s monetary policy stance and financial markets, and from there its impact on the real economy. the primary benefit of the adoption

as well as being attracted to bahrain by our comprehensive and transparent regulatory framework, these firms also tell us that they are drawn here by the maturity and efficiency of our financial markets. bahrain has also become one of the world ’ s primary locations for islamic finance. we host the largest concentration of islamic banks in the world – currently they number 27 – as well as many islamic insurance and fund management businesses. important standard - setting bodies for islamic finance, such as the “ accounting and auditing organisation for islamic financial institutions ” and the “ international islamic finance market ”, are located in bahrain. the bahrain institute of banking and finance is one of the pioneers in developing courses on islamic finance to develop a pool of trained professionals with the skills the industry requires. the skills and dedication of bahrain ’ s population is reflected in employment in the industry. almost two thirds of people working in the financial sector are bahraini nationals. this is testament to the skills, training, and work ethic exhibited by our population. looking now to the future, the financial services industry will continue to play a very prominent role in our economy. we realise that there are important lessons to be learned from the global financial crisis and we will certainly take notice of them. nonetheless, we believe that bahrain will continue to play a major role as the financial centre of choice for the middle east and north africa region. we will continue to encourage a diversified financial sector in which fund management and insurance will play an increasingly prominent role. in recent years we have already seen very strong growth in the insurance segment of our financial industry. premium income has grown at an average rate of 18 percent over the past five years, and the growth of takaful – sharia - compliant insurance – has been particularly notable. there is enormous potential throughout the region for sharia - compliant asset management and insurance businesses. encouraging the growth and diversification of the financial sector is a major plank in the kingdom ’ s 2030 vision. this is a strategy which sets out our ambitions for a well - diversified domestic economy for the post - oil era. it provides the unifying vision for a series of reforms that are already underway or which we plan to make in the near future. our aim is to further liberalize an economy that is already ranked the most free in the arab world. our liberalization strategy involves major reforms to a whole series of government institutions and key markets. for example, last year we became the first country in the gulf to abolish the sponsorship system, thus