anita angelovska bezhoska : enabling environment for capacity building opening speech by mrs anita angelovska bezhoska, vice - governor of the national bank of the republic of macedonia, at the center of excellence in finance ( cef ) coordinators meeting, skopje, 1 december 2010. * * * dear ladies and gentlemen, dear cef coordinators, distinguished representatives of central banks and ministries of finance in the region, dear representatives of the international monetary fund, international labor organization and, last but not least, dear organizers of this event, representatives of the cef ( center of excellence in finance ), i wish you all a warm welcome. i am delighted that this year the traditional meeting of the cef - coordinators takes place in the republic of macedonia and it is focused on a very important topic : “ enabling environment for capacity building ”. no doubts that the knowledge does not have boundaries. all of us, during our lifetime do try to compile as much wisdom as possible, to broaden our knowledge horizon and augment what we already know. in our professional life, we face a constant intellectual and public debate, which tries to challenge the existing paradigms, to offer new insights and to establish new norms. all of this, of course, for the purpose of building stronger intellectual and analytical capacity for efficiently coping with forthcoming professional challenges. sometimes, unprecedented events are needed to reveal the deficiencies in the currently accepted system of knowledge. these types of events underscore the weaknesses and pinpoint the missing parts of the puzzle. at the end of the day, out of turmoil, we all come out with new ideas, new concepts and new lessons to be learned and followed. or, to be more illuminating let me quote christopher adam and david vines – oxford university : “ … the great depression led keynes to write his general theory, thereby creating macroeconomics as a basis for national macroeconomic policy - making. the second world war led – via the bretton woods conference – to the creation of international macroeconomics, and to the birth of the imf … the present global financial crisis will, we think, most likely lead to a major shift in our understanding of the role of finance in macroeconomics, in both theory and in policy - making ”. the recent global economic and financial crisis indeed created a room for upgrade of what we knew or what we thought we knew. it clearly illustrated how fragile our knowledge can be emphasizing the need for a continuous capacity

efforts should be employed in enhancing digital training by employers and limiting digital brain drain. the more limited digital skills are, the more difficult it is to use new technologies and more limited are the growth prospects, in the world of rising digital intensive sectors. in this overall context, as a central bank we have our eyes laid on the financial sector. obviously, advancement in technology opens the door to innovative financial services, but to unlock its true value for businesses and consumers, we as regulators have a role to play. against this background, we have embarked on many activities in this area, including setting up an innovation hub in 2019, which interacts and supports companies that are willing to pursue innovative business. last year we conducted a broad based survey, with an aim to map the ecosystem, as a base for policy calibration. the survey revealed that 90 % of the respondents recognize the need for digital innovation in the financial sector and 72 % are already in the process of implementing some form of 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches digital transformation. there is an agreement among respondents that regulation can sometimes be a barrier for a swifter innovation. to eliminate regulatory barriers, a new law on payment systems has been prepared and is currently undergoing a parliamentary procedure. we have already drafted the first national fintech strategy, which will soon be shared with other stakeholders. tomorrow, under our initiative, all financial regulators will sign a memorandum for setting up a fintech committee with a view of promoting digitalization in the financial sector. to recap, there are no doubts that faster and inclusive income convergence calls for strengthened efforts to lift the growth potential, and perhaps even more importantly to lift the quality of growth. in this context, we would like to express our gratitude to ebrd for supporting us for almost three decades with more than eur 2 billion total investment to date aimed at supporting competitiveness, trade integration and green transition. despite the current headwinds which put economic growth at risk and require immediate policy focus, we should not lose sight of a longer term structural agenda, including digitalization. as andy rooney said, " everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it. " so, let us keep climbing. thank you. closing address at the end, let me thank the colleagues from the ebrd for the highly insightful presentations on the state of the economy and the main challenges of the wb region as well as the main findings of