those incentives, again, are all about visible prices in the open market and government securities provide the immediate natural platform. in this interconnected world, partnerships are critical. i am excited for the fscc to build this partnership with the asb. we leverage this market of experience and ideas from the best. of particular interest to me is that asb itself is a partnership that brings together the best talents and the broadest experience from different parts of the world. this puts the fscc in an envious position. we are partnering with the best to better ourselves so that we too can, one day soon, be the best at what we do. this is not about status. it is about making fscc an engine of improving the welfare of the 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches filipino public. this is the vision of the fscc for why managing systemic risks and the pursuit of financial stability matter. let me wish all the participants an enjoyable 10 hours of learning. eli has not shared with me the answer key to his questions. but knowing him for so long, i assure our fscc colleagues that you ’ re learning from the best in the field. finally, let me thank those who patiently set up the logistics for getting this course off the ground. to lily w ong of asb, thank you for your patience. to our fscc secretariat, i look forward to seeing the fruits of this course in your next systemic risk review. thank you governor zeti, charles, hans, eli and triw it. i welcomed everybody to this first collaboration because i do hope to benefit from all succeeding partnerships between asb and fscc. thank you and good morning to all. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches

ardian fullani : prevent rather than recover greeting speech by mr ardian fullani, governor of the bank of albania, at a technical seminar on surveillance systems to assess and monitor economic and financial stability, tirana, 24 july 2006. * * * honourable participants, i would like to thank you all for your participation in this very important seminar. allow me first to welcome ms. alvarez - plata and mr. kholodilin, two experts representing the distinguished german institute for economic research diw, who will be holding presentations over these two days and discuss the introduction and implementation of early warning systems for the financial markets and the exchange rate stability. over the recent years, the bank of albania has been working closely with prominent international partners, such as the gtz, in various projects, which aim at enhancing and further consolidating the work of the bank in achieving our main objectives. i avail myself of this opportunity to thank prof. bolle, who has been coordinating our cooperation with the gtz and ms. guda, local gtz coordinator, for making this seminar possible, as a series of activities we have been organizing jointly with the gtz. today ’ s seminar focuses on an issue we have already begun working on. last year in april, we organized a regional seminar in tirana with the topic “ stress - testing ”, wherein were discussed the ways of identifying timely the financial system weaknesses, which may jeopardize the maintenance of its stability in case macro and microeconomic conditions are unexpectedly aggravated. today ’ s seminar focuses on similar issues, but it provides more progressive approaches as far as early warning systems are concerned. such approaches and discussions bear a high level of technique, however, allow me to explain briefly and somehow simply the purpose of their implementation. last week, the bank of albania changed its core interest rate. as you may have already been informed of from our statements, the increase in the interest rate came as a consequence of future expectations effect and of a variety of factors which relate to inflation. what is important to the policies we conduct is the anticipation and prevention of destabilizing pressures in advance, rather than their correction after they have already occurred. waiting to take the proper measures after the signals have become a fact may be costly in two aspects. first, the maintenance of stability is not stable, as long as the measures are taken upon the aggravation of the macroeconomic situation. second, post - destabilization measures generally have their effects after