Of course, the big question now is what roles could policymakers play to support this transition. I see SMEs capacity building as one key area where the government needs to be actively involved. This includes proactive consultation and coaching, providing incentives for productivity-enhancing investments, prohibiting abuse of market dominance power by large firms, promoting digital adoption, as well as eliminating outdated laws and regulations hindering SME’s competitiveness. Although enhancing SME competitiveness might not be a direct mandate of a central bank, the Bank of Thailand has stepped up our policy focus on SMEs and worked with the banks on a number of initiatives. New digital payment platforms have been developed to lower costs of payment services, enhance payment efficiency, and provide a foundation for information-based lending and supply chain financing. A new database on system-wide SME loans by contract was set up to improve understanding of SME financing behavior and analysis of SME credit risks. We have also expanded the range of foreign exchange hedging products for SMEs and, recently, taken steps to encourage preemptive rescheduling and restructuring of SME loans to help facilitate their transition during this challenging period. 2  Dealing with financial spillovers The second issue for emerging nations in this new global environment is the size and volatility of financial spillovers that result from unconventional monetary policy after the GFC. Capital flows, especially portfolio flows, now account for a much larger portion of crossborder flows than current account flows, and have a much larger effect on the exchange rates for EMs.
I think it is more crucial than ever for small nations—emerging nations and advanced economies alike—to work closer together and make sure that our voices from the periphery are heard and that we make progress on macroeconomic policy frameworks fit for the new global environment. Thank you very much for your kind attention. 6