This is imposed also by our strategic determination for admission of the Republic of Macedonia to the EU - which ultimately means reaching an institutional capacity adequate to the criteria of the Maastricht Agreement from 1992 in order to be prepared to join the European System of Central Banks. We should even further increase the capacity of supervision. Therefore, new regulations, which we develop together with the Ministry of Finance are already underway, as well as new intensive activities for gradual shift towards risk-based supervision, as a basis for implementation of the New Capital Accord - Basel 2. At the same time, we should improve our capacity for analyzing the financial stability of the country - activities we have started, but which require great efforts and dedication. I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of the National Bank to all of you who in various circumstances and under serious challenges contributed to the development of an institution such as the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia. The Monograph we prepared on this occasion - 60 years of central banking in the Republic of Macedonia, is primarily a tribute to them. I would like to thank all of you who are here tonight, deeply feeling the historical significance of this jubilee! 4  BIS Review 100/2006
It therefore seems that the Asian banking and financial markets are moving along the right track and we should congratulate each other for this accomplishment. However, I am not entirely sure if Asia can afford to feel complacent because I believe Asia’s finance is still facing many short-run and longer term challenges. In the interest of time, I would just highlight two key challenges. a.  Short-run challenge: clearly this has to do with the Fed tapering and the normalisation of the US interest rates. The key question is to what extent the unwinding of the dollar carry trade, which prevailed for over 5 years since the collapse of Lehman, would lead to significant outflow of funds and tightening of market liquidity across Asia. The risk of a “new normal” causing a rise in interest rates, re-pricing of assets and a slow down of economic growth would be a big challenge for Asia in the next year or two. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  b. Longer term challenge: there are many structural reform challenges for Asia’s capital markets, but today I would just focus on infrastructure financing. It is beyond doubt that Asia needs heavy investments in infrastructure in the next decade or two. Some have estimated the amounts of funding needed for infrastructure financing to be in the order of $ bn a year. At the same time, Asia has accumulated a huge amount of savings, which are more than adequate to finance the infrastructural investments in the region.