Although the decoupling of countries seems highly difficult in a global environment where all countries get increasingly interpenetrated via capital flows and financial integration, it is a fact that developing countries have ended up in a much better position in the recent global crisis in comparison to their economic performance in the past crises. It would not be wrong to assert that the main reasons underlying this transformation are the increased commercial, financial and economic relationships among developing countries, accompanied  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  by strong economic and institutional governance practices formulated in view of lessons learnt from past crises. The increase in the volume of trade among developing countries has reduced the adverse effects of the weak course of external demand from advanced economies. Therefore, production and employment levels in developing countries have assumed a more rapid pace of recovery. At this point, by using Turkey’s export data, I would like to exemplify the importance of diversification of export markets driven by improving relations with countries in the region. As it is known, the European Union countries have the largest share in Turkey’s exports. Nevertheless, the share of member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Turkey’s exports is rapidly growing. During the period between end-2000 and end2010, while the share of the European Union countries in total exports of Turkey declined from 56% to 46%, that of OIC member states rose from 13% to 29%.
With further reduction in NPLs and higher interest rates, there are better prospects for banks’ profitability. We see demons of the past in our region today and we wish to avoid any doubting of our European and Transatlantic engagements. In order to go further we must prevent the demons of the past from questioning the virtues of opening our economy to foreign investment. The only way to preserve this fine moment for Romania is to steer and balance the economic growth, to advance on our European path and grasp the benefits of this historical process. I will now give the floor to Mr. Jeffrey Franks who will deliver an in-depth presentation on the first chapter of the report – “Europe Hitting Its Stride”, accompanied by his discussant, Deputy Governor Liviu Voinea. I wish you all a fruitful debate today! 2/2  BIS central bankers' speeches