benjamin e diokno : strengthening the bsp ’ s collaboration with the academic community opening remarks by mr benjamin e diokno, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the signing of memorandum of understanding between the bangko sentral ng pilipinas and carnegie mellon university - australia, manila, 2 september 2019. * * * prof. ramayya krishnan, dean, heinz college of the carnegie mellon university ; prof. emil bolongaita, head of the carnegie mellon university – australia ; my bsp colleagues … good morning. the bangko sentral ng pilipinas has been known as one that continuously ensures the continued learning and capacity building of its people. the need to pursue this has become more relevant given the ever changing landscape of central banking and the growing complexity and increasing demands of the banking and financial industries as it embraces digital transformation. currently, the bangko sentral ng pilipinas is pursuing the strategy for technology adoption in regulatory supervision ( stars ) program, which covers real - time market surveillance, digital supervision and examination, data analytics, data collection, and distribution. we are also pursuing the national retail payment system ( nrps ) modernization initiatives, financial technology ( fintech ) innovations to promote financial inclusion, cashless purchase card initiatives, among others. the card production for the philippine identification system ( philsys ) and use of government ereceipts are bsp ’ s contribution to the e - government master plan of the national government. internally, the bsp is strengthening and updating its systems and processes through the integrated hr information system and strengthening its information security, including data privacy and cybersecurity. these initiatives — to be successful — would require the up - skilling or re - tooling of bsp staff and the re - engineering of the systems and processes of the bsp. however, we cannot do this alone, and this brings me to our activity, and why we are all here, today. the digital transformation initiatives of the bangko sentral ng pilipinas requires collaborations with leading practitioners and experts and globally recognized centers of excellence like the carnegie mellon university ( cmu ) – australia, to ensure its success. the campuses of the cmu have all been acclaimed to be leaders in their respective fields of specialization. in fact, the times higher education has ranked cmu as 24th among the thousands of universities in the world. cmu has also

most in need of external financing experienced large declines in output. a number of economies in central and eastern europe were only moderately affected. output contraction, however, was especially severe in the baltics and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in south eastern europe. this circumstance suggests that countries with the more serious imbalances and vulnerabilities were most at risk from external financial shocks. the lesson from this recent experience is that convergence efforts should be accompanied by stabilityoriented policies that contain the build - up of imbalances, both domestic and external. policy efforts at the national and international levels helped contain the impact of the crisis on economic activity. the prevailing exchange - rate regimes were successfully defended and the domestic banking sectors showed considerable resilience. in many instances, fiscal and monetary policies were tightened. in some cases the tightening occurred within the context of programs supported by the imf and the eu. as a result, financial conditions have stabilized and there are now clear signs of a recovery in economic activity in most countries in central and eastern europe. nevertheless, the global crisis has entailed large costs for the region. there has been a sharp decline in economic activity and unemployment has risen sharply in many countries. bis central bankers ’ speeches moreover, the ongoing de - leveraging process, that is the need to repair household and corporate balance sheets, tighter bank - credit standards, as well as rising long - term unemployment, could slow the pace of economic recovery in many see countries. the south east europe economies, like most other economies in central and eastern europe, will likely experience reduced capital inflows, because investors have become more riskaverse. consequently, foreign investment may decline compared with pre - crisis levels, leading to lower economic growth compared with the growth rates experienced in the years leading up to the crisis. in light of the above, there will be a need to formulate and implement economic policies geared toward developing alternative sources of growth – policies that will render the economies less vulnerable to external shocks and that will allow them to better navigate their way through shocks should they occur. one such source of growth concerns the tradedgoods sector. growth based increasingly on exports will help avoid the boom - bust cycle and asset - price bubbles that have in the past been associated with non - fdi capital inflows. such a growth will prove more sustainable. a more - diversified export base will also help protect the economies concerned from sector - specific shocks, while providing an important mechanism for limiting the build