mainly focused on the energy sector. there are currently 643 austrian firms operating in turkey. distinguished guests, the european union is a success story regarding peace and cooperation among nations with rather bitter historical memories. no wonder the european union obtained the nobel peace prize in year 2012. despite all the debates and a high degree of uncertainty regarding the new economic governance structure in the eu, i sincerely believe turkey ’ s closer cooperation with austria will bring invaluable outcomes in line with the european spirit. to conclude, i would like to express my view that the future of the commercial, financial and economic relations between austria and turkey looks more promising than ever. today ’ s joint meeting and the opening ceremony of the exhibition “ contemporary turkish painting and printmaking in the republican era ” are small, symbolic, yet quite significant steps to mark the start of this new and healthy trend. thank you very much for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

importance of systemic risk along with macroprudential measures to mitigate this risk to ensure financial stability has necessitated reconsideration of the regulatory framework at global level. the enactment of the dodd - frank act in the us and the establishment of the european systemic risk board ( esrb ) in europe as well as new regulations introduced in other countries aim to mitigate systemic risk via coordinated action across agents responsible for financial stability. to this end, turkey established the financial stability committee in the summer of year 2011. along with the central bank, the committee is composed of the banking regulation and supervision agency, the capital markets board of turkey, the savings deposit insurance fund and the undersecretariat of treasury. in the international arena, turkey became a member of the financial stability board ( fsb ) in 2009. it will take part in g20 troika in 2014 and assume the annual presidency of the g20 in 2015. moreover, turkey ’ s representative from the undersecretariat of treasury will join the fsb steering committee during the 2014 – 2016 period when turkey will be in g20 troika. moreover, turkey became a member of the basel committee on banking supervision ( bcbs ) and the group of governors and heads of supervision ( ghos ) in 2009. the central bank of the republic of turkey will take part in the fsb steering committee during the period 2013 – 2015 when turkey will be chairing the fsb regional consultative group for the middle east and north africa ( mena ). as part of the governance reform of the international monetary fund ( imf ), a new constituency was established with the countries turkey, austria, hungary, czech republic, slovak republic, slovenia, belarus and kosovo. according to this agreement, the executive director position will rotate among austria, hungary, czech republic and turkey. this is perhaps a symbolic but, in my personal view, a very significant step in the right direction regarding the future of the turkish - austrian relations. distinguished guests, at this point, i would like to exemplify increasing commercial and economic relations between austria and turkey. our export to austria was 1. 1 billion usd and import from austria was 1. 6 billion usd at the end of 2012. these numbers are quite small compared to the potential. on the financing side, however, there is good news. austria is the leading country in foreign direct investment flows to turkey for the period after 2008 with 7 billion usd in total. direct investments are