instructions to a more active role in assessment of loan applications before making credit decisions. this is not an easy change. it involves both time and considerable adjustment in the thinking. besides, good tools are a must for a good job : bank employees have to increase their knowledge of the banking business in a market economy and enhance their professional standards. this is precisely one of the objectives of the institute of bankers, and with its newly launched representative office in beijing, the institute will extend its existing good work to the mainland. it will help promote the training of bank employees on the mainland, thereby contributing to the effective financial intermediation and smooth functioning of this crucial part of modern economy. the economies of the mainland and hong kong are now highly interdependent. the institute ’ s beijing representative office will not only serve to enhance professionalism of the mainland ’ s banking sector as a whole, but also contribute to the financial stability and development of both the mainland and hong kong. let me end this address by wishing the institute ’ s beijing representative office every success in its future endeavours.

overall infrastructure investment needs of asia at us $ 8 trillion over the 2010 – 2020 period. and, with the mainland authorities implementing the “ belt and road ” strategy to enhance connectivity within the region through increased infrastructure investments, there is likely to be an even greater financing requirement. as such, hong kong is well positioned to develop into a major financing hub for investments in this field. 8. indeed, the establishment of iffo has three main objectives : • building a cluster of key stakeholders in infrastructure financing, including equity and debt investors, project sponsors and developers, professional advisors, and relevant agencies from the “ belt and road ” countries ; • providing a platform for information exchange, experience sharing and capacity building on infrastructure financing among the cluster members ; and • promoting hong kong as a major platform for belt and road infrastructure project sourcing, financing and fund management, leveraging on our role as an international financial centre. 9. the hkma is now in the process of setting up iffo and the response, to date, has been most encouraging. in - principle support has been received from the asian infrastructure investment bank, the asian development bank, and the international finance corporation under the world bank group. and others have also indicated an interest. iffo will be launched in july and we look forward to sharing with you more information about its work. corporate treasury management 10. i would now like to turn to issues of more immediate concern to you in your treasury management roles, and to share a few factors which i believe are shaping your business : 11. first, the continuing liberalisation of the mainland ’ s capital account. as i mentioned earlier, the mainland authorities have continued to implement measures to liberalise cross - border fund flows. i am sure many of you are familiar with the progress, but let me just quickly name a few key measures introduced in recent years : bis central bankers ’ speeches • the shanghai - hong kong stock connect has been in place and operating smoothly since november 2014, allowing international investors access to the a - shares listed in shanghai through the stock exchange in hong kong, and vice versa. • the mainland - hong kong mutual recognition of funds scheme was implemented in july 2015, allowing mainland and hong kong funds to be distributed in each other ’ s markets through a streamlined approval process. • the qfii arrangement was refined in february this year by relaxing individual quotas and shortening the investment lock - up period, among other improvements. • the people ’ s bank of china announced in february a