mugur isrescu : the most important economic decision nations have ever faced lecture by mr mugur isrescu, governor of the national bank of romania, at the bitcoin versus central bank digital currency conference, bucharest, 6 april 2023. * * * ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon! thank you for attending this conference on the topical issue of cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies. today i have the pleasure of welcoming and introducing our distinguished guest speaker, ms. sundri khalsa, professor at the national intelligence university - known as " the harvard of the intelligence field ", and a us marine corps veteran. welcome, professor khalsa, to romania and to the national bank of romania! sundri khalsa's background also includes being a professor at the united states naval academy, director and instructor of the marine corps military occupational specialty training school, where she trained and certified marine corps signals intelligence and electronic warfare officers. she is an expert with field experience in signal intelligence and information support for integrated military operations. let me add that her studies also include degrees from harvard university, john f. kennedy school, with additional certification in management, leadership and decision sciences, university of virginia ( with specialization in chemistry and biochemistry ) and new mexico military institute ( where she was awarded the science scholar awards in physics and chemistry ). her book " terrorism forecasting : indicators and analytical techniques " is on the cia's reading list and used in university courses. her articles and research cover topics such as mutual support of qualitative and quantitative methods in the field of intelligence or topics related to the debate in the intelligence community about intuition versus structured technique in prediction and decision making in conditions of risk and uncertainty. she is a supporter of structured methods and statistical, cybernetic and mathematical analysis in the development of prediction systems. one final thing about her background, which i am certain many of you will find interesting, is that she is a marine corps black belt mixed martial arts instructor. she has led the marine expeditionary unit training in martial arts and trained over 200 marines and certified 60 to the next higher belt. so all in all, a very impressive background and track record. professor sundri khalsa is visiting the research institute of the university of bucharest. professor marian preda, the rector of the university, wrote me about this visit. he pointed out that, in addition to being a specialist in the development of applications of quantitative and statistical

mugur isarescu : the transatlantic renaissance – romania as a faithful partner and ambitious player opening speech by mr mugur isarescu, governor of the national bank of romania, at the conference “ the transatlantic renaissance : romania as a faithful partner and ambitious player ”, bucharest, 9 december 2013. * * * prime minister ponta, mr. kennedy, your excellences, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for the national bank of romania, and an honor for me and the board members, to welcome such a distinguished audience. i salute the presence of victor ponta, prime minister of romania, who will be the keynote speaker today and that of craig kennedy, the president of german marshall fund of the united states. allow me to greet their excellences, members of the diplomatic corps, as well as the other notable guests who represent an important array of successful domains of activity. a special welcome to mircea geoana, president of aspen institute romania and his team of young, talented and hardworking professionals. today ’ s gathering has a challenging topic : “ the transatlantic renaissance : romania as a faithful partner and ambitious player ”. here, at the national bank of romania, we take pride in having always been a forum for debating, in an open and profound manner, the themes and trends defining our age. thus, it is the perfect venue to host such a conference as this one, which encourages individuals to reflect on ideals and ideas that define good society through leadership, dialogue, entrepreneurship and regional stability. i have read two papers prepared by aspen institute and the german marshall fund : the report “ dialogues on the national interest. recommendations of public policies ” and the program “ east - west gateway ”. they generate the object of the forthcoming debates. allow me to make some remarks regarding the national interest and the transformations within the financial sector that are currently taking place in europe. the national interest goes beyond its economic dimension, although it is also true that the smooth functioning of the economy is not only an objective per se, but also a means to achieve the other objectives subordinated to the national interest. as any other european central bank we are focused on price and financial stability. obviously, monetary and financial stability is an essential ingredient of economic performance. this is all the more relevant for a catching - up economy, such as romania. on the one hand, progress towards convergence is impossible to imagine without capital accumulation from local and external sources alike, and it cannot be achieved in the absence of a