We at the Bangko Sentral are happy that you have come to the Philippines to discuss child and youth finance in Asia and the Pacific – where it is said roughly 60% of the world’s youth reside. Here in the Philippines alone, about half of our total population are young.
As many here can testify, it was exciting to be here when the Fund was at the center of the global financial storm of the 1990s and early in this century.