free flow of goods, services and investment within the region by 2015. let me update you on the progress so far. • on trade in goods, virtually all goods in asean already move throughout the region tariff - free1. we are now working on reducing non - tariff barriers. asean - 6 countries have eliminated tariffs on 99. 65 % of tariff lines effective 1 jan 2010. the clmv countries have reduced tariffs on 98. 86 % of their tariff lines to the 0 – 5 % tariff range in 2010, and are expected to eliminate tariffs on these goods by 2015, with flexibility for a few tariff lines until 2018. bis central bankers ’ speeches • on services, asean member states have recently completed the eighth package of commitments under the asean framework agreement on services. what this means is that we can expect the reduction of services barriers, such as foreign equity limits in the asean countries. • on investment, the asean comprehensive investment agreement entered into force in march last year. this agreement has established stronger, pro - business rules, with enhanced investment protection for both asean - owned investments and also foreign - owned investments based in asean2. singapore ’ s multilateral agreements however, to enable businesses to access major markets more easily, singapore has also broadened our engagement with asia pacific beyond asean. by doing so, we aim to reduce trading costs. to this end, singapore actively participates in negotiations of several multilateral trade agreements. one example of such a multilateral trade agreement is the regional comprehensive economic partnership, or rcep, which is a partnership between asean and six other countries, namely australia, new zealand, china, japan, india and south korea. regional comprehensive economic partnership ( rcep ) and renminbi ( rmb ) internationalisation this agreement builds upon the existing asean + 1 free trade agreements ( ftas ) ftas by bringing together asean ’ s existing ftas with its key partners into a single comprehensive agreement. rcep will be one of the biggest ftas in the world, covering 3 billion people and accounting for one - third of the world ’ s gdp. rcep is a significant agreement for asean. it is an ambitious attempt to deepen regional economic integration and to link asean ’ s various trading partners, many of whom do not have existing trade agreements with one another. one key partner for asean in rcep is china. china will continue to play an increasingly important role in trade with asean, and this will grow even further with its participation in rcep. in 2012

’ s determination to achieve those goals. decades of fiscal mismanagement and faulty fiscal reporting have caused the markets to adopt saint thomas ’ s dictum : to see is to believe. fourth, i am also confident that the government will implement the structural reforms and privatisations that are part of the support package. these are needed to reduce excessive bureaucracy and rigidities in the labour, product and service markets that discourage investments in high - value added sectors. allow me to say a few words about greece ’ s debt situation. some market analysts are of the opinion that greece ’ s debt dynamics are unsustainable. they are wrong. they overlook the fact that a crucial element underlying the evolution of the debt - to - gdp ratio is the denominator of that ratio, which includes the growth of real output. in this connection, the combination of factors comprising the support program – that is, fiscal discipline, the liberalisation of markets, privatisations, and measures to increase the efficiency of the bureaucracy – will contribute to confidence, decrease the size of the public sector, reduce interest - rate spreads, and boost competitiveness and economic growth. in turn, higher growth, along with declining fiscal deficits, will cause a reversal of the rise in the debt - to - gdp ratio observed in recent years. moreover, fiscal discipline will add to saving, thereby supporting private investment and growth potential. these effects may not be visible immediately, but they will materialize and will revitalise the greek economy. some lessons what, then, are the lessons that can be drawn from the crisis? in my view, some of the key lessons concern the limits to the use of fiscal policy and are as follows. first, the view that fiscal policy can be used in a flexible way to smooth the effects of shocks in a monetary union has been shown to be overly simplistic. as the case of greece illustrates, the systematic use of fiscal policy in the past can lead to problems of debt - sustainability, constraining the current use of fiscal policy. i need to mention that fiscal expansions in many countries with relatively - low debt levels in the immediate aftermath of the lehman crisis were successful in lessening the impact of the dislocation in their real economies. even in those countries, however, there is now a need for decisive actions to achieve a lasting and credible consolidation of public finances. second, rather than smoothing the adjustment to shocks, in greece pro - cyclical fiscal policy has