. and, to do so, it is crucial that we increase investment, such that there is sufficient capital formation to facilitate productivity growth. on this note, i am pleased to say that collective effort to increase the level of investment has already taken place. the government campaign – “ thailand investment year 2008 / 2009 ” is a spearhead project to make thailand stand out as the investment destination for foreign investors. the campaign ’ s key missions include restoring investor ’ s confidence with more proactive marketing activities, strengthening infrastructure to accommodate for expansions, channeling investment into strategic industries for the future, as well as improving investment - related services. recently, a good feedback on the international level has been reported by the media. in the “ doing business 2009 ” survey of 181 countries by the world bank, thailand just ascends 6 ranks to the 13th place where investors are provided with convenience in doing business. thailand made key improvements in areas such as protecting investors, ease of paying taxes, and trading across borders. apart from these efforts to induce external capital, it is also necessary to support investment through domestic saving promotion scheme in an anticipation of narrowing investment - saving gap in the future. furthermore, the ease and coverage of financial access can also be enhanced further to facilitate efficient flow of funds. outside the realm of government policy, we stand to gain from a greater role of private sector. in this regard, i would like to commend the bcc ’ s effort throughout the years. a programme like “ thailand means business 2008 ” which bcc will hold in both thailand hotspots like bangkok and chiang mai, as well as abroad like england, hong kong, and singapore, is a great help for attracting foreign investment into thailand and enhance the country ’ s capacity and potential. ladies and gentleman, for thailand to achieve the goal of long - term sustainable growth, commitments have to be made today. and, this leads to the final part of my talk. as governor of the central bank, i am committed to pursuing price stability and financial stability to foster medium and long - term economic growth. on the financial stability side, i see that the thai banking sector has decoupled from the direct impact of the global credit crisis. in fact, the banking sector ’ s exposure to cdos was only 0. 3 percent of its total assets in 2007, which was completely sold off. on non - performing loans, the net npl level will be one of the issues that we will be addressing through second -

##ing when the world is going through significant transformation, with unprecedented policy actions all across the globe, and with yet - to - be - known consequences of such actions and their unwinding. faced with the uncertainty and the complexity of the environment we are operating in, we need to take a broader perspective and make sure our decisions are robust under different plausible eventualities. at the same time, the bank of thailand constantly strives to expand our economic surveillance capability, by collecting up - to - date intelligence on economic and financial conditions through indirect and direct contacts with the market. the insights from direct contact, coupled with the information from surveys like our business sentiment survey sharpen the picture we get from the other available statistics. this is one reason why monetary policy cannot simply follow mechanistic and simplistic rules based solely on any single data. nonetheless, uncertainties can never be off the table. in this light, a prudent approach is to move in careful and measured steps. that kind of incremental action in what we perceive to be the right direction is likely to contribute more to economic stability than aggressive attempts to fine tune the economy. bis central bankers ’ speeches 3. inability to address supply - side impediments the third limitation of monetary policy i would like to emphasize today is its inability to address supply - side impediments. through interest rate adjustment, monetary policy can influence aggregate demand in the economy. but monetary policy cannot solve deeper structural problems or lift growth potential of the economy. that needs to come from real progresses that increase productivity and relax supply - side constraints. sure, demand stimulating can buy time by cushioning the economy from short - term economic shocks. but this may possibly delay necessary adjustments of the economy to longer - term challenges. for example, keeping interest rate too low for too long and keeping exchange rate undervalued, beside encouraging risk taking and storing up financial instability problems for the future, may also temper incentives for businesses to improve efficiencies, and may slow the reallocation of capital and labor to more productive uses. in the context of thailand, one of the most important structural issues facing the thai economy at the moment is that of the labor shortage. through our business contact and recent surveys, the labor shortage has scored one of the top concerns by both domestic and foreign businesses operating in thailand. underlying causes of labor shortage include the demographic change and education and skill mismatch. clearly, there is little monetary policy can do to