Furthermore, the ECB supports the European Commission’s objective to deepen the financial dialogue with other countries, such as China and Japan, as highlighted in the White Paper on Financial Services Policy 2005-2010. Ladies and gentlemen, This brings me to the end of my remarks. I see this conference today as another crucial step in increasing our mutual awareness and understanding of such issues.
At times of no difficulties, too, our New York office gave essential inputs to discussions in Tokyo, thereby enabling us to learn a lot about not only the U.S. economy but also economic and financial developments in the world. Let me emphasize that our New York office is performing a very important role within the Bank of Japan.