But, in the end, our region’s economic dynamism is essentially driven by the private sector, and this is why the key to unleashing mutual prosperity is in your hands. 15. Whether you are a banker, an investor, or an entrepreneur, it is you who will be using these financial and infrastructure linkages. I would therefore urge you all to tap onto this tremendous opportunity that is arising by, for example, •  Venturing abroad to invest in new markets in ASEAN;  •  Expanding your businesses through our linked capital markets; and  •  Taking part in the new regional logistics based sector. Ladies and gentlemen, 16. I am very pleased to learn that tomorrow you as representatives of 36 banks from ASEAN+3 countries will be signing the “Bangkok Declaration” to bolster your mutual cooperation. This demonstrates that the private sector has already taken the cue from us in the public sector to tap on opportunities in the region. I congratulate you all in advance and hope that other industries would follow suit. Thank you very much for your attention. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3
Strategic or industrial goals can also be pursued, such as facilitating the access of domestic firms to new foreign technologies, or more generally bolstering national industries. One such example is provided by the new Chinese State Investment Company, which could possibly use a large fraction of its assets to recapitalise the Chinese banking sector. In a word, sovereigns are also in charge of economic policy and it is intrinsically difficult for them to maintain schizophrenia between their actions as policy-makers and their decisions as managers of public assets. The strategic allocation of their risky assets can therefore be expected to be used, in some cases, as another policy instrument. Given these specificities of sovereign holdings of risky assets, it is legitimate to wonder whether the growth of these holdings raises new challenges for central banks and the international community. Transparency I will conclude on the issue of the appropriate transparency level for SWFs. Should SWFs be more transparent than other institutional investors? This question must be addressed from two different perspectives: accountability and financial stability. As a public institution, an SWF should disclose a minimum set of information because of its fiduciary responsibility. Over the recent past, public institutions have responded more and more favourably to the arguments in favour of transparency. In particular, the benefits of greater accountability and the benchmarking of sovereign institutions tend to outweigh arguments in favour of secrecy. For instance, most central banks nowadays report their FX reserves holdings to the IMF under the SDDS and publish a detailed annual report.