Between the beginning of 2004 and their peak in August of this year, world oil prices rose from $ to $ a barrel. There have been comparable increases in the prices of metals and other raw materials over the same period. Economists have also speculated that globalisation may be changing wage- and price-setting behaviour in developed countries, by adding to the competitive pressures facing domestic producers and wage earners. This is not just a reflection of increased competition from cheap manufactured imports, and the greater availability of migrant labour to ease domestic labour shortages. A Welsh audience will need no reminding of the many ways in which both inward and outward foreign direct investment can affect domestic employment opportunities. Hard as it is to quantify, the net effect of these trends may have been to reduce the sensitivity of domestic inflation to changes in the margin of spare capacity in the economy. But while these effects go some way towards explaining why the global inflationary climate may have been relatively benign over much of the past decade, I think they fall short of providing a complete explanation for the strength and resilience of global output growth. For this we might look to the more elusive influence of financial integration, and the added impetus to global growth provided by the increasing weight of fast-emerging market economies, particularly in Asia. It is just worth pausing on the remarkable ease with which the world economy has apparently absorbed the impact of sharply higher oil prices.
This is particularly pertinent to the Distributed Ledger Technology 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  platform for trade finance that we are building with the industry. This is why we have earlier announced a collaborative initiative with Singapore in this area. And I am also very pleased to note that HM Treasury and the HKMA have just started a dialogue to explore further cooperation under this project. Green Finance If I am asked to predict what will be an emerging theme for the financial services sector in 2018, green finance looks like a safe bet. Green finance is growing rapidly and Mainland China has become one of the major markets for green bonds. Hong Kong is also keen on tapping into the green finance opportunities. The Hong Kong Government plans to issue a green bond for the first time next year. There is much we can learn from and collaborate with London, which has been a forerunner in this segment of the market. One of the burning issues is the divergence in various green bonds standards and assessments currently in the market. I hope today’s Seminar could shed some light on this and also the way forward for green finance development. Conclusion The future is not all rosy though. Challenges and uncertainties abound and this calls for stronger cross-border collaboration. The success of this Forum in the past six years shows that London and Hong Kong can be an all-weather friend. And I wish all of you a very fruitful discussion today. Thank you.