, we are seeking all the talent we can from around the world. to build a first class economy, with first class banks, companies, and government, we need top notch people. there are many talented singaporeans, but not enough. we must find and deploy talent, whether singaporean or foreign, to become a vibrant and dynamic city and outperform competitors. we are getting our organisations to emulate the best us mncs, which induct talent from many cultures and countries, and meld them into a single cohesive management team. singapore will be a place where opportunities abound, where able and enterprising people want to live, work and enjoy themselves, and where foreigners are welcomed and treated as part of our extended family. besides upgrading the skills of our workforce and attracting foreign talent to singapore, we are promoting entrepreneurship, particularly technology startups. we have launched a technopreneurship 21 programme. under this, we are changing the education system to lighten the curriculum, encourage creativity, risk - taking and a spirit of life - long learning among our young. second, we are setting up a us $ 1 billion venture fund to coinvest with the private sector in startups, whether by local entrepreneurs or foreign talent attracted to singapore. third, we are improving the physical infrastructure for start - ups, such as technology park facilities. and finally, we are reviewing existing laws and regulations, for example those governing taxation of stock options. a fourth area of change is the liberalisation of the financial sector. our goal is to make singapore a leading financial centre in our time zone, linked to other major financial centres of the world. over the last two years, we have progressively shifted our philosophy on financial regulation to a lighter, more market oriented approach. we have given fund management companies greater access to domestic funds, including personal savings in the compulsory pensions scheme, and the government ’ s reserves hitherto managed by gic and mas. we are promoting the debt market, demutualising and merging the stock and futures exchanges, bringing corporate governance up to date, and introducing risk - focussed supervision and inspection of financial institutions. we are also allowing more foreign competition in the domestic banking sector. we have just issued new banking licences to foreign banks. keener competition will mean better banking services and stronger local banks that can hold their own in a rapidly changing industry. while pursuing major economic priorities, we have not neglected to strengthen our social cohesion. singapore

tharman shanmugaratnam : corporate governance developments in singapore and the region speech by mr tharman shanmugaratnam, deputy chairman of the monetary authority of singapore, minister for education and second minister for finance, at the oecd asian corporate governance roundtable, singapore, 27 june 2007. * * * introduction good morning and a very warm welcome to singapore. it gives me great pleasure to be here at the oecd asian corporate governance roundtable. the last time the roundtable was held in singapore was in 2001, and we are happy to be able to host this important international gathering once again. 10 years after the 1997 asian financial crisis, this year ’ s roundtable gives us a good opportunity to do a stock - take, to see where we are now and identify the areas where we must continue to move forward in the region. avoiding complacency in a benign economic environment the macro picture amongst the asian countries is vastly improved. the asian economies are by and large showing strong growth, driven in large part by increased trade and investments both within asia as well as with the rest of the world. investor confidence is back. capital inflows are back to the levels that existed before the asian crisis. and strong inflows of portfolio capital and foreign direct investments have replaced bank lending as a dominant source of capital inflows. last year, the asean - 5 countries, for example, attracted some us $ 50 billion of foreign direct investment, significantly greater than the us $ 28 billion seen in 1997. institutional investors are allocating more funds to asia, in search of higher yields and to benefit from the strong growth in the region. improvements in corporate governance are part of this story. but even in this positive climate, we must remain wary of risks. terrorism and avian flu are not distant threats. the abundance of liquidity in global and asian markets has also led to a narrowing of credit spreads that is unlikely to persist for long. the repricing of risk may be triggered by a variety of events, arising for example from a geopolitical disturbance, an unexpected setback in economic growth, or the failure of a major borrower in global financial markets. the repricing of risk, unwinding of spreads and contraction of liquidity in higher risk assets and markets may be sudden, and may not be orderly. on the positive side, the innovations we have seen in global financial markets, including the extensive securitization of assets and