There should be ways for countries to cope with bank runs on the international scale. There should be opportunity for countries to renegotiate their debts with the foreign creditors, without imposing an insurmountable handicap that will prevent them from returning to the market in future. In the case of Thailand, had such mechanism existed during the Asian crisis, our non-performing loan ratio would have been less. Actually we paid back all foreign debts owed by the government and by the banks in full, with interests. We never needed any hair cut, we just needed time. But many foreign banks did not roll over the debts that fell due, despite the fact that the authority guaranteed all foreign debts of the banks. The continuous repayment caused the currency to weaken more than it should. The exchange loss was therefore greater than should have been, and hence the non-performing loan ratio. At the same time, our weak currency also created pressure on the exchange rates of our neighbors, causing the interest rate to be kept high for longer than necessary, which in turn also fed into the non-performing loan ratio. 2  BIS Review 52/2002  I am therefore attaching a lot of hope to the Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism now being deliberated by the IMF members. I do hope that it will offer better solutions for this kind of problems in the future. I will close by saying this. Globalization is a two way street. Relationship in the international financial market benefits both ways.
Concluding, I would like to thank all the researchers, the speakers, the audience and our collaborators, who responded positively to our call for participation. With these words, I wish you all fruitful deliberations, I wish the conference all success and I wish all the guests an enjoyable stay in Tirana. Thank you! 2/2  BIS central bankers' speeches