jorgovanka tabakovi : development of financial industry in the digital economy era address ( via video ) by dr jorgovanka tabakovi, governor of the national bank of serbia, at the opening ceremony of the 20th china international finance forum, 14 december 2023. * * * esteemed hosts, esteemed participants of the china international finance forum, it is a great honour to address you for again on behalf of the republic of serbia and the national bank of serbia, at the helm of which i have been for more than eleven years. dear friends, three years ago i said that it was not easy to speak about financial services in the digital economy era to you who are leaders in this area. but, it is not difficult either, because china is the type of leader who helps and encourages others to make progress as well. serbia is a good example of this, which is also reflected in the economic and financial cooperation underpinned by the mutual respect and friendship of the serbian president aleksandar vui and the chinese president xi jinping. in the past ten years, china has become serbia's important foreign trade partner. our cooperation has strengthened for an entire decade, ever since we signed the joint statement on deepening strategic partnership, making serbia the first country in central and east europe to set up strategic partnership with the people's republic of china. during this year's belt and road forum for international cooperation, we also signed 18 important agreements, of which the free trade agreement between our two countries is the most important one. china was the second - largest foreign investor in serbia in 2020 and 2021, and the largest foreign investor in 2022, with investments worth usd 1. 5 bn. thus, a third of the record - high fdis to serbia in 2022 came from china. trade in goods increased as much as 5. 4 times in the past ten years, with china becoming serbia's second most important trade partner in 2022. in january 2015, the national bank of serbia included the chinese yuan in the list of currencies traded in the serbian fx market. in 2021 and 2022 the chinese yuan was among the four top currencies traded between domestic banks and their clients in the serbian fx market, which is another important indicator of the strength of our economic and overall relations. with the people's bank of china, we concluded the memorandum of understanding on designating a clearing bank for chinese yuans in serbia, creating conditions

telephone patent to western union for only $ 100, 000, but was turned down. similarly, marconi initially overlooked the radio ’ s value as a public broadcast medium, instead believing its principal application would be in the transmission of point - to - point messages, such as ship - to - ship, where communication by wire was infeasible. a second source of technological uncertainty reflects the possibility that an innovation ’ s full potential may be realized only after extensive improvements, or after complementary innovations in other fields of science. according to charles townes, a nobel prize winner for his work on the laser, the attorneys for bell labs initially refused, in the late 1960s, to patent the laser because they believed it had no applications in the field of telecommunications. only in the 1980s, after extensive improvements in fiber optics technology, did the laser ’ s importance for telecommunications become apparent. it ’ s not hard to find examples of such uncertainties within the financial services industry. the evolution of the over - the - counter derivatives market over the past decade has been nothing less than spectacular. but as the theoretical underpinnings of financial arbitrage were being published in the academic journals in the late 1950s, few observers could have predicted how the scholars ’ insights would eventually revolutionize global financial markets. not only were additional theoretical and empirical research necessary, but, in addition, several generations of advances in computer and communications technologies were necessary to make these concepts computationally practicable. all these examples, and more, suggest, that if we dramatically change the rules now about banking and commerce, with what is great uncertainty about future synergies between finance and nonfinance, we may well end up doing more harm than good. and, as with all rule changes by government, we are likely to find it impossible to correct our errors promptly, if at all. modifications of such a fundamental structural rule as the separation of banking and commerce accordingly should proceed at a deliberate pace in order to test the response of markets and technological innovations to the altered rules in the years ahead. the need for caution and humility with respect to our ability to predict the future is highly relevant for how banking supervision should evolve. as i proposed to this audience last year, regulators are beginning to understand that the supervision of a financial institution is, of necessity, a continually evolving process reflecting the continually changing financial landscape. increasingly, supervisory techniques and requirements try to harness both the new technologies and market incentives to improve oversight while reducing regulatory burden, burden