come up with minimum benchmarks to guide its application and regulation. these may include : the need for creation of enabling environments for private sector initiatives to thrive ; continuous private - public sector dialogue to facilitate formulation of innovative policy solutions ; and balancing access with stability to safeguard integrity and stability of the financial system. further, today ’ s scenario building process will benefit a lot from the lessons of the four scenarios of the scenario building 2020 by cgap and dfid. these are : ( a ) existence of untapped opportunities in the environment that can be exploited through innovation. ( b ) the fact that opportunities are available everywhere including post - conflict countries which can potentially be exploited through branchless banking. ( c ) successful branchless banking regimes may be vulnerable to disruptions like court decisions and other underlying forces which make branch - intensive strategies unviable. however, data - enabled phones may present the best strategy to mitigate such risks. ( d ) successful transition to a cashless society may present a big challenge to successful mobile phone money transfer service providers, regulators, and the economy. ladies and gentlemen : i would like to reiterate that while the central bank welcomes innovative products, it evaluates all such products to ensure safety and efficiency concerns are adequately addressed. the central bank has the necessary capacity to properly evaluate and appraise technology driven financial services to ensure they meet international standards and provide comprehensive consumer protection. finally, may i assure you that the central bank will always strive to provide an enabling legal and regulatory framework to encourage innovations by all players in our financial sector in order to enhance access to financial services. in this regard, we will continue to work with stakeholders as we are doing today to put in place an enabling environment for business to thrive. with these remarks, ladies and gentlemen, it is now my pleasant duty to declare this workshop open.

. the thai financial markets remained resilient through 2007 with only moderate fluctuations. though credit and deposit grew slowly last year as domestic demand was weak, profitability of banks and financial institutions were satisfactory and the overall non - performing loans in the banking system remained moderate. ladies and gentlemen, against the background of sound monetary and financial stability, the growth momentum of the thai economy is expected to gain strength through the year 2008. this trend is envisaged, notwithstanding rising financial disruptions and ebbing confidence in the us and across the world as regards the global economic prospects, linked to the sub - prime woes in the us. overall, reflecting the solid fundamentals and the resiliency of the thai economy, the monetary policy committee expects that the thai economy will grow by 4. 8 - 6 percent this year. however, due to continued high prices of energy and food, headline inflation is expected to be in a range of 4. 0 - 5. 0 percent for the whole of 2008. having said this, the underlying inflationary pressure should be well contained as the core inflation forecast of 1. 52. 5 percent still remains within the target. during the first two months of this year, private consumption and investment are firming up after recovering during the fourth quarter last year. clearer political landscape post - election and continued spending by the government have helped revive confidence in private investment and consumption, which constitute almost 70 percent of total demand in thailand. indeed, confidence is one of the several factors underpinning private consumption expansion, in addition to fiscal stimulus measures, and agricultural prices. on this note, i should say that the strong growth of farm income has helped maintain consumption momentum especially that of non - durables during periods when confidence was weak. in 2006 and 2007, farm income grew by 32. 7 and 16. 6 percent, respectively. now, we are seeing a pick - up of consumption of durable goods as confidence increases, which is aided in part by the continued strong growth of farm income by 25. 8 percent during the first two months of 2008. private investment, an important growth engine, had been held back over the past few years. however, private investment indicators have risen steady since the second half of last year, prior to the pick - up in consumption, reflecting the continued high capacity utilization well above the 70 percent mark. now that the government has announced the clear implementation plan for public investment over the next 5 years, the public sector ’ s commitment to invest heavily where it