decisions. it is that simple. it is also clear that the governance / quota problem will not be solved without resolving difficult issues about the representation of europe in the fund. for lack of time, i pass over quickly two other issues : the income of the fund, and the fund's role in poorer member countries. as emphasized in a recent paper by jack boorman, the fund's income needs to be fitted to its role, and not vice versa. with regard to poorer member countries, the fund, in close collaboration with the world bank, needs to continue to be involved in working with them. after all, its claim to legitimacy depends on its being and being seen as a global institution. in this regard, it will probably be necessary to increase the basic vote by more than agreed upon at least year's singapore meeting. there is much to be done, and we wish incoming managing director strauss - kahn every success as he takes over leadership of the fund. 3. the bank president zoellick has set out his vision for the bank in his october 10 speech at the national press club and his october 21 note to the development committee. the vision is appropriately ambitious. it deserves the strong support of the membership. the overall vision is to contribute to an inclusive and sustainable globalization – to overcome poverty, enhance growth with care for the environment, and create individual opportunity and hope. to do that, the president sets out six key strategic themes : • overcoming poverty and spurring sustained growth in the poorest countries, especially in africa ; • helping rebuild post - conflict and failing states ; • producing an appropriate business model to help middle income countries meet their development goals ; • fostering regional and global public goods ; • promoting development and economic opportunities in the arab world ; • developing the role of the bank as “ the knowledge bank ”, a brains trust of applied experience. as they should, these themes clearly reflect the needs and wishes of a wide range of the developing and emerging market member countries of the bank. the goals implied by the themes will not be achieved easily. indeed it is fashionable to emphasize the failures of development over the past fifty years, the many countries where per capita income has declined, the persistence of poverty and of hunger. it is right to emphasize the problems that remain to be solved. but we should also from time to time recognize that this has been a remarkably successful decade for the developing countries, that many african countries are now growing at rapid rates, and that in asia

the next two years or so, whether the outlook deemed most likely by the bank follows a path of sustainable growth under price stability. the second perspective is examining, in a longer term, various risks that are most relevant to the conduct of monetary policy aimed at achieving sustainable economic growth under price stability. in particular, financial imbalances will be examined as a risk that will significantly impact economic activity and prices when they materialize, although the probability of their emergence is not necessarily high. it is fair to say that this framework was formulated in light of the lessons learned regarding the monetary policy conduct during the bubble period of the latter half of the 1980s. that was when policy action to address the accumulation of financial imbalances had been delayed in a situation where attention was focused on stable general prices at the time, and policy measures to achieve economic stability in the medium to long term were not sufficiently implemented. i think that the assessment of economic activity and prices based on this framework has become increasingly important as the bank pursues qqe. e. communication with the markets monetary policy produces positive effects through changes in market developments and in financial institutions ’ behavior. accordingly, in order to enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy, communication with the markets is very important. in particular, as many central banks in advanced economies are currently conducting unconventional policy, better communication with the markets has become the common challenge facing each economy. in relation to this, a notable example has recently been observed in the united states, where the process of normalizing monetary policy has already been initiated, and in the united kingdom, where normalization is starting to be considered. specifically, the central banks in both countries were forced in a short period of time to make modifications in their forward guidance that seemed to aim at avoiding a large increase in the long - term interest rate, as such an increase could cause instability in the economy and the financial system. in the united kingdom, the unemployment threshold for future policy interest rate hikes was maintained, but its significance was reduced substantially. in the united states, the unemployment threshold was abandoned. what is common in both countries is that monetary policy has shifted toward referring to many economic indicators. this can be interpreted as meaning that the intrinsic feature of the forward guidance of “ strongly influencing expectations ” has weakened, and that there has been a move to return to the conventional policy measure of “ comprehensive assessment ” that emphasizes the degree of freedom and flexibility in the conduct of policy. bis central bankers ’ speeches as illustrated, central banks