and financial issues at universities, in central banks and in international institutions such as the imf and the bis. by debating and discussing and, yes, disagreeing, we can over time generate much more clarity about what path we need to follow in enhancing monetary and financial stability in asia and elsewhere. some may wonder why i include academic economists in that list. i do so for three important reasons. first, research undertaken in universities very frequently serves as a starting point for work undertaken in central banks. one of you may just have written a very good paper on the sensitivity of the new zealand economy to international business cycles or the determination of capital flows between thailand and the rest of the world. it may well be that this paper, unknown to the author, triggers research at the hong kong monetary authority on how sensitive our economy is to external factors or on the determination of capital flows in and out of hong kong. secondly, academic research undertaken in a free and open manner, and presented at conferences such as this, serves to improve the quality of research in central banks. there is a strong presumption in my mind that competition, no matter whether it be in the market for airline tickets or in econometric models of exchange rates, are beneficial to consumers - and central banks are large consumers of economic research. more directly, i know that some of the hkma ’ s research staff will present papers here, and i am sure that your comments on the papers will trigger ideas for how they could be improved. next time, they will be better. thirdly, universities are the source of staff for central banks. we do hire your students and sometimes we are even able to hire academic researchers. in sum, the asia - pacific region needs more co - operation and exchange of ideas in the monetary and financial sphere, and to achieve that it needs stronger links between economists working in this area in central banks, international institutions and universities. this is exactly what the australasian macroeconomics workshop is all about, and i am delighted that we could tempt you to come to hong kong for this year ’ s meeting. thank you and let the fun begin.

come cheaply but it is the price that people know that they have to pay for the protection of their physical properties. 3. in the cyber world, just like the real world, there are plenty of risks and dangers. financial crimes will occur whenever there is money to be made and for sure criminals and hackers alike will use their best endeavours to penetrate the defence of the cyber world to rob or steal. the strength of the cyber world also lies its main weakness. hackers can choose to attack customers and financial firms any time and anywhere because the virtual world is highly interconnected. cyber attacks can take many different forms. a frequently used method is to make phishing attempts to trick customers into divulging their account information and passwords, or to plant malwares into customers ’ computers and mobile phones to steal their access credentials. then the hackers transfer moneys from the victims ’ accounts. sometimes the hackers would do something unusual, such as the recent example in bis central bankers ’ speeches hong kong in which some customers ’ bank accounts had been used by hackers to conduct unauthorized stock trading without stealing money from the victims ’ accounts. at the bank level, the usual form of attacks would be distributed denial of services ( ddos ), whether they are motivated by blackmail, revenge or activism of some sort. there is a worrying trend that this form of attacks is rising very fast in recent years. cybersecurity fortification initiative 4. rather than harbouring the hope that you are lucky enough not to be targeted, it is more prudent and productive to take the necessary pre - emptive steps to protect yourself or your customers from cyber attacks. cybersecurity is the very foundation of modern banking and without it there is no point for us to boast hong kong as a world class international financial centre. while banks in hong kong have so far had very few incidents of serious cyber attacks, there is no place for complacency if we wish to maintain hong kong ’ s competitive edge as the preferred financial hub in asia. in this connection, the hkma has earlier this year set up a new fintech facilitation office, which has taken cybersecurity as its top priority mission. having worked very closely with the banking industry and other stakeholders, i am very pleased to announce today that the hkma has decided to launch for the banking system a “ cybersecurity fortification initiative ”, which is known as “ cfi ” in