the large non - resident indian community and facilitating their fund raising activities from singapore. the middle east has a combined gdp that exceeds asean ’ s. post 9 / 11, the middle east is increasingly looking towards asia in order to reduce its dependency on the west. there is a window of opportunity for us to play a bridging role. singapore will host the inaugural meeting of the asia - middle east dialogue ( amed ) in june next year. to expand our economic space and strengthen political relations, i have visited several countries in the middle east and will visit more next year. mas should continue to work with other government agencies to deepen our engagement with the middle east. the market estimates that of the us $ 1. 3 trillion in middle east private wealth invested overseas, less than 10 % is invested in asia. some us $ 100 billion or more could flow into regional markets to tap diversification benefits. this presents an opportunity for the asset management companies and capital markets industries here to develop investment funds and structured products, including islamic financial products, to manage a portion of this wealth. maintaining excellence in a riskier environment our second priority is maintaining excellence in our core central banking functions in a riskier environment. in recent years, the external environment has become more volatile and complex. at the same time, our economy has been undergoing significant structural adjustments. we must ensure that the formulation and conduct of monetary policy continue to be robust and flexible. we will further strengthen our monetary policy formulation process by enhancing our forecasting, surveillance and research capabilities. we intend to reinforce our macro - econometric model by introducing new features that will enable us to better assess the impact of risks on key sectors and relationships in the economy. in the area of surveillance, we have started an intensive industry consultation process as part of our exchange rate policy review. we will continue to fine - tune this process. to enhance our understanding of the economy, we are constructing a flow - of - funds framework to get a better understanding of financial flows across different sectors of the economy. changes and increased volatility in financial markets also pose challenges for the implementation of monetary policy. singapore dollar capital markets have grown enormously over the last five years. foreign participation has gone up. more foreign investors are likely to participate in our markets when singapore government securities are included in the world government bond index next january. our market surveillance must broaden as the mix of market participants becomes more diverse. as the volume of trade in singapore dollar securities increases,

jose manuel gonzalez - paramo : the euro exhibition address by mr jose manuel gonzalez - paramo, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the opening ceremony for the euro exhibition at the museum fur kommunikation, berlin, 19 november 2009. * * * ladies and gentlemen, distinguished ambassadors and members of parliament, it is a great pleasure for me to be here in berlin, at the beautiful premises of the museum fur kommunikation to inaugurate “ the euro exhibition ”. i would like to thank the museum for its fruitful cooperation with the european central bank, which has given us the opportunity to display our euro exhibition here. this year we are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the euro. let ’ s take a look back at the short but memorable history of our common currency. on 1 january 1999 stage three of economic and monetary union began with the irrevocable fixing of the exchange rates of the currencies of the 11 member states initially forming the euro area. the number of countries participating in economic and monetary union has grown over the years. today, the euro banknotes and coins are legal tender in 16 of the 27 member states of the european union and are used daily by almost 330 million citizens in the euro area. the single currency is used in an area that stretches from cyprus to ireland and from portugal to finland. we are actually celebrating another anniversary this year. it is 20 years since the process of german reunification began and we all remember 9 november 1989 as the day which marked the fall of the berlin wall. let ’ s not forget that berlin itself is a city that occupies a special place in german and european history. indeed, currencies can play an important role in shaping a national identity and the deutsche mark is one of the strongest symbols of german reunification. the foundations for political reunification were laid by the treaty establishing monetary, economic and social union, which came into force on 1 july 1990 and enabled the east german mark to be converted into the highly regarded deutsche mark. these days it is the euro that is shaping a european identity. for many, the euro only became a reality when the euro banknotes and coins first entered into circulation on 1 january 2002, replacing national currencies like the deutsche mark. in the eight years that we have been using the euro in our day to day lives, once complex transactions have now become effortless : there is no need to exchange money within the euro area and transferring money within