to be inclusive and financial system can play significant roles in promoting inclusive growth, starting with financial inclusion. the people at large must have access to basic financial products including payment, savings, credit, and insurance. the pricing has to be lower, choices wider, and access better. products that we should see more of are, for example, basic savings account with no minimum balance to cater for the low - income group, low - fee payment and transfer services, micro insurance for farmers, and increased information - based lending to small businesses complementing to collateral - based lending. despite the high level of access to finance in thailand relative to other emerging asian countries, the bank of thailand regards financial inclusion as one of our top priorities. in collaboration with both banks and non - banks, we have continually put our efforts to promote financial access in many areas. they include, for instance, smes ’ credit guarantee scheme, free - of - charge fund transfer through our new faster payment system for any amount up to 5, 000 thai baht ( approximately equivalent to 145 us dollar ), no - fee bank savings account, nano finance to accommodate small borrowers, as well as the new business securities act to widen the scope of eligible collateral for secured lending. in addition, we will soon launch an unsecured debt restructuring scheme for individual borrowers with multi - creditors to address the household debt overhang. to ensure a “ good quality ” financial inclusion, financial literacy and financial technology literacy are crucial life skills for both households and small businesses. effective financial literacy would help increased consumers ’ financial discipline and understandings of financial products and their risks. thus, deepening such basic knowledge and turning concepts into changing behaviour would be particularly helpful to shelter vulnerable businesses and households from getting themselves into over indebtedness or stuck with unsuitable financial contracts. besides, as technology advancement permeates into all businesses, all lifestyles, and all sectors, if we also could ensure that households and small businesses that make up the majority of our economic agents can practically apply and benefit from the new technology, while being aware of its associated risks, then we could significantly raise their standards of living. ladies and gentlemen, that brings me to the end of my talk today. to aspire for a better standards of living for all citizens of asia for the next half century and more, we, all of us, must collectively do our part to ensure inclusive and sustainable growth. in so doing, banks and financial institutions, as the blood vessels of

in the environment where the public expects us to keep inflation within the target range. this makes us extremely conscious of every policy decision we make, which in turn allows us to avoid potentially costly policy mistakes. but perhaps the biggest change is on the credibility front. the way we conduct policy and our track record have helped us to regain any credibility we may have lost following the unsuccessful defense of the baht. public confidence in the bank enables us to anchor private - sector expectations about future inflation, which in turn reinforces the effect of our policy. yet despite all the good things inflation targeting has brought us, it is not a panacea. in other words, there are limits to inflation targeting. an apparent example here is development of asset prices. also, past successes do not guarantee future success. the economic environment we live in today is inherently dynamic and continuously evolving. we therefore need to be aware of both old and new challenges to inflation targeting as a monetary policy framework. some observers have cautioned that thailand ’ s inflation targeting regime has not been truly tested. in particular, there has not been an incident that gives rise to a severe tension between inflation stabilization and other objectives. for example, thailand has not experienced sharp exchange rate movements that come into conflict with the inflation objective. nor has the country been in a situation where persistent supply shocks lead to a significant slowdown of the economy amidst rising prices. operationally, there are also issues on how far we should push transparency. a few inflation targeting central banks now put forecasts of policy rates in their inflation reports. should thailand follow these practices? should we publish our mpc minutes as the fomc does? and should we announce the weight we put on output gap stabilization relative to inflation stabilization explicitly in the inflation report. in the past, we only mentioned these weights occasionally in passing. all these questions will sooner or later have to be tackled when our inflation - targeting regime gains maturity. ladies and gentlemen, the issues i have mentioned, as well as other challenges confronting the conduct of inflation targeting in emerging economies, are the main focus of this international symposium. we are honored to have with us five leading international researchers who will present their in - depth studies on some of these issues along with highly regarded discussants and panelists, not to mention the rest of the participants. the goal is to have an intellectual exchange of ideas and practical experiences on these important issues. to make the most out of the one - and - a - half - day event