ben s bernanke : fostering workforce development speech by mr ben s bernanke, chairman of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the federal reserve bank of richmond and community college workforce alliance forum on workforce development, richmond, virginia, 9 june 2010. * * * thank you, president lacker. i ’ m pleased to be here today to learn firsthand about the variety of workforce development initiatives in virginia. i appreciate the efforts of everyone who is taking part today, and would like to especially thank the community college workforce alliance and the federal reserve bank of richmond for organizing today ’ s forum. i also want to acknowledge the presence of lieutenant governor bolling. organizations such as the workforce alliance and public - private partnerships supported by the governor ’ s office are helping people in virginia improve their own lives and economic circumstances. as our nation continues to recover from the recession, these and similar workforce development programs in communities across the country are demonstrating that they are vital to the well - being of main street economies all over america. today ’ s forum has brought together representatives of a range of organizations with the shared goal of fostering economic growth and job creation – including the governor ’ s economic development and jobs creation commission, the virginia workforce investment council, the international economic development council, and the heldrich center for workforce development. this forum supports the ongoing efforts of all of these organizations to develop and share strategies to help provide employment opportunities for americans. i understand that your sessions today have focused on efforts to retool virginia ’ s workforce through community college and state government initiatives. you have also shared insights about the condition of the national economy and employment trends. although our country continues to endure high unemployment, we see some signs of modest improvement in the labor market. nationally, private payroll employment rose an average of 140, 000 per month over the three months ended in may, and firms have been lengthening the workweeks of their employees. virginia has been sharing in the recent improvement, with approximately 32, 500 private - sector jobs having been created during the first four months of this year. nonetheless, in all likelihood, a significant amount of time will be required to restore the nearly 8½ million jobs that were lost nationwide over 2008 and 2009. partnerships like the workforce alliance, and programs at other community colleges, are crucial to ensuring that americans are able to advance their careers or find work after losing a job in what has been a very challenging economic time. as the labor market recovers

dimension is consolidation of financial activities in fewer locations. before the collapse of the bretton woods system, financial institutions had predominantly domestic clienteles and tended to locate in their respective financial capitals, for easy access to clients. so the largest centres tended to be financial capitals of countries with the largest economic bases. but as the structure of the financial industry evolved post - bretton woods, there has been a decoupling between the size of a financial centre and the size of its economic base. institutions now need to service customers from many countries. it is not feasible for international players to maintain a major presence in every jurisdiction where they operate. so the financial centres that are able to enhance the competitiveness of their constituent firms are the ones that thrive. proximity to clients has become less critical. what counts now are intangibles such as market information networks, quality of regulation and supervision, credibility, as well as a critical mass of skilled and innovative professionals. london is a prime example of this phenomenon. despite not being part of the eurozone, and having a smaller economic base than financial centres on the continent like frankfurt and paris, london has thrived, and by all indications will continue to grow as a financial centre. in asia too, the trend is towards consolidation of activities in fewer centres, resulting in keener competition between financial centres. this overall consolidation reflects the economics of the industry. but which particular cities emerge as major centres depends also on the competitive advantage which they create for themselves, i. e. the policies they pursue and the activities they promote, to gain a headstart over rivals. singapore has therefore taken a pro - active approach to building ourselves up as an international financial centre, and not relied passively on financial institutions choosing to set up here. our vision is for singapore to provide a full - range of financial services for east asia. obviously, we cannot match london, new york or tokyo in terms of size or depth of domestic markets. but that should not stop us from becoming a key global node in certain areas. our approach has been twofold : first, to set fair and transparent rules for the industry, and provide a conducive, open and competitive operating environment. and second, to catalyse the growth of promising sectors of the industry, with incentives and promotional support. we have sought to push in the direction of market forces, rather than against them. asset management one good illustration of how we have sought to promote and develop our financial centre is our efforts