high - skilled labour. this allows the gms to continually expand the production capacity and speed up innovations that would foster the long - term regional economic growth going forward. ladies and gentlemen : 10. this journey of transformation is not a bed of roses and it could take some times to bear fruits. yet, there are opportunities to be seized in pursuit of long - term sustainable development. with promising prospects await, what i expect to see in a very fast - approaching future is the interplay between different facets of development to strengthen the health of the economy and keep it well in balance. these recipes may sound familiar, if not already overheard. the key enablers that i view important to warrant the gms ’ s smooth transformation towards strong growth foundation mentioned above include ( 1 ) infrastructure ( 2 ) in - house technological advancement and ( 3 ) sound financial system. 11. firstly, in order to unlock the long - run potential growth, well - established infrastructure will be one of the crucial pillars that will sow a seed of a healthy investment climate conducive for growth. such that, infrastructure upgrade requires time, yet necessary. investment in logistic areas including increasing road density, better railway system, modernized airports and seaports will all lead to the enhancement of both production and distribution processes whereby strengthening connectivity among members. preeminently, concrete long - term plans on infrastructure projects are vital in order to attract large pool of regional savings to meet investment needs. a set - up of asian infrastructure investment bank or aiib comes at a right juncture to raise potential for infrastructure financing for the whole region. also, governments ’ clear focus on infrastructure upgrading will facilitate the growing cross - border trading activities. i am glad to see the continued cooperation between thailand and other gms members in linking our rail networks and roads in order to foster trade and investment interconnectedness among us. 12. secondly, despite physical infrastructures in place, lack of innovative ideas to leverage on existing knowledge and technology could undermine the potential of the region. with this bottleneck, the economies may face limitation in sustaining their competitive advantage, which currently rely heavily on the exploitation of natural bis central bankers ’ speeches endowments and support from the government. in this regard, private sector ’ s improvement in technology and innovations, in tandem with other infrastructure development, can become a tailwind to support the gms to overcome technology stagnation and provide a competitive edge to the private sector. this should also enhance the intra - regional trade

years to address the weaknesses in structural, regulatory and supervisory arrangements that existed prior to the crisis. the fssa recognises the significant strengthening of irish financial system, the major structural changes that have taken place since the financial crisis and the implementation of a more proactive regulatory approach, concluding that “ the authorities have been effective and vigorous in strengthening prudential regulation and supervision, implementing the lessons of the crisis, and keeping up with developments in european and international good practice. ” in relation to the supervision of securities markets, the fssa also acknowledges the bank ’ s leading role in the analysis of collective investment activities, which is significant in view of the large scale and international interconnectedness of the irish investment funds sector. at the same time, the imf has also made a number of important recommendations to increase further the resilience of the irish financial sector and improve the effectiveness of the bank as a regulator. the bank has already started to work on these recommendations, in conjunction with other irish and european authorities. to take one example, the bank has recently formed a new internal advisory committee on the design of domestic macroprudential policy measures, including the borrower - based mortgage rules, the counter - cyclical capital buffer and the other systemically important significant institution ( osii ) buffer. in line with the imf ’ s recommendation to improve further the degree of public transparency in relation to our decision - making processes and our own ongoing commitment to provide evidence - based explanations for our policy measures, summary records of the meetings of this new macroprudential measures committee ( mmc ) will be published. stress tests an important element of the fsap was a stress test exercise for the banking system. the forward - looking assessment of the resilience of banks to various risk scenarios is a key tool in informing supervisory actions and financial stability policies. in fact, the bank has recently participated in three stress testing exercises : first, as part of the imf fsap ; second, as part of the wider bank stress tests across the european union, led by the european banking authority ( eba ) ; and third, the single supervisory mechanism ( ssm ) stress tests, which followed the eba methodology and ran concurrently with it. the bank also continues to review and challenge the banks ’ own stress testing approaches and outcomes. i will focus on the first two exercises, as the outcomes are now in the public domain. the bank ’ s analytical framework was used to support the imf f