We have introduced major reforms carefully, to minimise the disruption and side-effects, as we have done with the tax and CPF changes. We are providing social support to those adversely affected by the changes, to ensure that no one is left behind, without undermining the incentive to work. Our concern is not just social cohesion, but racial and religious harmony. If remaking our economy splits our society along racial or religious lines, we will be in deep trouble. 6  BIS Review 19/2003  This will be one of our most difficult challenges for a long time to come. Our future depends on Singaporeans being resilient and self-reliant, yet we must make sure that those who are truly unable to cope get the help they need. We will continually need to balance these two objectives, to ensure that we do not have any free riders on our ship, and yet that all of us will reach the destination together. Conclusion This will not be the last time that we have to remake the Singapore economy. Companies find it difficult to successfully ride even one wave of changes. For countries, the challenge is even greater as they have to be ready to transform themselves repeatedly. If a company fails to remake itself it goes under. The creative destruction of the market economy then recycles the freed-up resources to other more productive purposes. But if a country fails to remake itself, the consequences for its people are dire.
I hope to be up to the task of the legacy you are leaving us. My thanks, too, to the members of the Bank’s Executive Commission and Governing Council and, most particularly, to the Deputy Governor, Javier Alonso. Javier, your help and far-reaching knowledge of the Bank are making these first weeks in the job easier for me. But, above all, I should like to thank my colleagues over the course of the years. It would be impossible to list them all; many are here today. The career of a Banco España employee can only fully be understood through the prism of the numerous interactions and discussions between us, which are the bedrock on which we build our knowledge and our particular human capital. It is a privilege to be part of this environment and to participate in such an enriching process. Finally, the most singular thanks are for my family. Without them none of this would have been possible. Let me seize this opportunity to refer briefly to what should, in my view, be the two main objectives of the Banco de España at this juncture and which are related to our relevance and reputation. The first has to do with our insertion into the Eurosystem and into the Single Supervisory Mechanism. Some think this means that the Banco de España has an increasingly diminished role, given that the main functions linked to monetary policy and supervision of the financial system are decided in that framework.