eddie yue : hong kong : the natural gateway to islamic finance in asia – current developments keynote address by mr eddie yue, deputy chief executive of the hong kong monetary authority, at the 2009 asia sukuk summit, hong kong, 18 february 2009. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour to be invited to speak at today's inaugural asia sukuk summit in hong kong, and a pleasure to welcome you all, especially those of you who are visiting hong kong. this is the first sukuk summit to be held in asia and it takes place at the beginning of the year of the ox in the chinese calendar. the ox symbolises strength, resilience, and – of course – bullishness. for, while it may be true that we are still in the middle of unprecedented financial turbulence, every crisis brings with it new opportunities for renewal and change. the remarkable turnout today clearly reflects a desire to explore new ways of restoring financial market stability and, most important of all, promoting growth. this summit has assembled an impressive gathering of colleagues from both the public and private sectors from many parts of asia, europe and the middle east. the theme of the summit – " towards a new silk route for islamic finance " – is an apt one : it is a call for partnership in creating new regional bonds and links of the kind that once allowed this ancient trade route to flourish in a diverse yet co - operative world. in the globalised world, such co - operation is more important than ever if our economies are to be able to meet future challenges successfully. i have been asked to give a brief overview of hong kong, with particular emphasis on how this city is developing its islamic finance capabilities. hong kong ’ s strength as a free and open international financial centre has helped nourish its deep and liquid financial markets. yet maintaining a free and open market in such a turbulent world is not an easy task. it is therefore reassuring that hong kong ’ s monetary and financial systems have continued to be sound and robust, reinforced by a number of recent contingency measures to strengthen financial stability. there are many factors that underline the resilience of hong kong's financial markets : i would like to highlight two. first, even when extreme volatility prevailed in the global foreign exchange markets following the collapse of lehman brothers, the exchange value of the hong kong dollar remained firmly anchored even as other major currencies suffered wide fluctuations, causing a ripple effect to

radovan jelasic : 125th anniversary of the enactment of the first law on the national bank of serbia speech by mr radovan jelasic, governor of the national bank of serbia, on the 125th anniversary of the enactment of the first law on the national bank of serbia, belgrade, 31 january 2008. * * * ladies and gentlemen, institutional anniversaries such as the one today are the right time to look back at what has been achieved and to ask ourselves if we have managed to preserve the fundamental values of our society and state. today, we are celebrating 125th anniversary of enactment of the first law on the national bank of serbia, which laid the cornerstone of one of the most important institutions of the serbian state. preparations for the enactment of this law lasted for about a decade, as can be seen from a document dating from as far back as 1873. the leading people of that time understood the need for the young serbian state to pursue the most advanced european standards and visited almost a half of european countries, including germany, switzerland and belgium, to learn more about modern central bank organization and operations and to apply this knowledge in formulating the law on the central bank. at that time, there was no brussels administration and serbia was offered no technical or any other assistance, but the makers of the first law on the national bank of the kingdom of serbia had a clear vision of the country ’ s future and of what needed to be done for serbia to catch up and keep pace with the best european practice. anniversaries are also an occasion to remind ourselves of the fundamental ideas, aims and visions, and to see how close we are to achieving them! for the national bank of serbia, entering the 21st century meant a return to the main ideals and spirit of the law enacted in 1883 – to build an independent and professional institution, which is just and fair in the distribution of money. it is misleading to portray serbia as being on a crossroads between the east and the west, dithering between european integrations or their opposite. europe has both an “ east ” and a “ west ”, a “ north ” and a “ south ” – in this europe, we all are equal but different! in practice, such “ europe ”, the europe woven into the law of 125 years ago, means simply that we must work harder, better and more responsibly ; that we must renounce daily populism, sycophantism and pol