All these measures for the support and restructuring of the financial system have proven technically correct, they are well adjusted to Spain’s situation, and they were rapidly designed and approved with broad consensus. Certainly, such characteristics should be applied to other areas so needy of reform, such as the rebalancing of public finances and certain labour market institutions. The need for restructuring has been understood by most of the banks that required this to ensure their viability and soundness in the future, and they have reacted by working on various integration processes. In previous talks I explained the criteria used by the legislator for these processes, and which are those that should prevail: the sufficient reduction of capacity, the soundness of the resulting banks and the minimal use of public funds. These should be the goals both of banks themselves and of all the public authorities intervening in the process. BIS Review 51/2010  1  Along with restructuring, my recent speeches on the financial system have focused on a matter I consider, unquestionably, to be the biggest risk hanging over Spanish credit institutions, especially the least diversified ones: mass unemployment. Unless a reform of our labour institutions that tackles this most serious and most Spanish problem with resolve is approved promptly and with the widest possible consensus, many of our credit institutions will suffer the consequences: more bad debts, less business, higher public indebtedness and, consequently, dearer wholesale funding, etc.
For the institutions that are socially responsible and work for the benefit of all citizens, the most important indicator for measuring the success in achieving their strategic goals, is the quality of the policies. One of the biggest and toughest tasks of the HRM function, is probably managing the knowledge and building the expertise of intellectual force of the institution, through continuous training and professional development. In order to be effective, organisations must be able to understand that human capital alone will not create value. People have to be motivated and managed by the use of good human resource practices and given the opportunity to develop and use their skills to create valuable goods and services. If the knowledge cannot be embedded in goods and services that are in demand, then this human capital will have no value to the organization. I hope that this workshop will contribute for creating better environment for capacity building in all our countries in the region. Also, it is my strong belief, that this meeting of the coordinators, apart from being useful for exchange of information in the process of prioritizing and creating the future visionary training programmes, will lead to strengthening of the regional cooperation among national authorities. Let me finish my address by quoting Mr. Gary Matthews, Consultant with UK Government’s Investors in People, which I believe reflects the actual economic rationale of training and development of human capital: “People are the only asset that appreciates, through training and development. All other assets depreciate”.