lim hng kiang : singapore exchange beijing representative office opening speech by mr lim hng kiang, deputy chairman of the monetary authority of singapore and minister for trade and industry, at the launch ceremony of the singapore exchange beijing representative office, beijing, 21 april 2008. * * * ladies and gentlemen, congratulatory remarks i am delighted to be here with you this evening to commemorate the opening of the singapore exchange beijing representative office. first, i would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the chinese government and the chinese securities regulatory commission for the generous support of the singapore exchange ’ s efforts in china. establishment of the singapore exchange beijing representative office the setting up of the singapore exchange ’ s first overseas representative office in beijing underscores the exchange ’ s commitment to china. this representative office will further strengthen existing links between our two business and finance communities under the broader china - singapore partnership framework. chinese listings on the singapore exchange the singapore exchange started serving the fund - raising needs of chinese companies since 1997, and it has seen strong interest in the recent years. encouraged by the chinese government ’ s " go out " policy and also boosted by the economic strength of the chinese economy, chinese companies have increasingly taken significant steps to regionalise and internationalise their businesses. many chinese companies have chosen singapore as a springboard into the region and the singapore exchange as a fund - raising platform. besides accessing global capital, a listing on the singapore exchange also helps the companies create overseas brand awareness and broaden shareholder base. it is an effective enabler in assisting the chinese companies to pursue their international business strategies. today, there are 143 chinese companies listed on the singapore exchange. these chinese listings cover a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, services, real estate, transportation, pharmaceutical and many other rapidly growing industry sectors. particularly, some chinese companies have chosen to leverage on singapore ’ s competitive advantages in certain sectors including real estate and shipping. in the real estate sector, singapore has attracted yanlord land group, a leading developer of high - end residential properties in china, and capitaretail china trust, the world ’ s largest china reit, to list in our equity market. yangzijiang shipbuilding and cosco corporation, china ’ s largest shipbuilders, have also chosen singapore as their international listing destination. regional growth i expect chinese companies ’ regionalisation efforts to continue, notwithstanding the recent market volatility. the recent subprime crisis in the united states has dent

private and public debt over time for 17 advanced economies since the late 19th century. relative to gdp, total debt has more than doubled. around the year 1900, the total debt of households, non - ﬁnancial businesses, and governments amounted to a little less than 100 % of gdp. in 2016, total debt was just about to cross the 200 % mark. advanced economies have levered up considerably during the past century, and a large share of the increase in total debt happened in the decades after 1970. figure 1 ( panel b ) also shows that there is considerable heterogeneity across advanced economies, reﬂecting different institutional structures, ﬁnancial sector regulation, social security systems, and preferences. figure 1 ( panel a ) shows that the public debt ratio has been broadly stable at around 50 % between 1870 and world war i. but two world wars and the great depression created substantial demand for public spending and drove up public debt levels signiﬁcantly in advanced economies. in the middle of the 20th century, public debt amounted to nearly 100 percent of national income on average. after a consolidation period of about three decades, the increase came to a halt around 1990. in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, ﬁscal imbalances once more increased considerably. by the year 2016, the mean public debt - to - gdp ratio had nearly reached its mid - 20th - century peak ( eichengreen, el - ganainy, esteves and mitchener 2019 ; jorda, schularick and taylor 2016b ). the trajectory of private debt to gdp looks somewhat different. relative to national income, borrowing of households and non - ﬁnancial businesses rose more than threefold prior to world war i. while public debt surged, bank lending declined during the world wars and the depression - era of the 1930s. around 1950, private credit amounted to less than a third of annual gdp on average. by the early 1970s, it had doubled and reached its pre - world war i level. since then, the private debt ratio has nearly doubled again, arriving at more than 110 % of annual gdp in 2016 ( jorda, schularick and taylor 2016b ; schularick and taylor 2012 ). the spectacular rise in total debt relative to gdp since the 1970s depicted in figure 1 ( panel a ) has thus mainly been the result of an unprecedented growth of private sector debt. which factors can account for the leveraging up of public and