Ravi Menon: Stepping up the Chongqing-Singapore connection Keynote address by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Singapore-China (Chongqing) Financial Conference, Singapore, 4 September 2017. * * * Vice Mayor Liu Guiping, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. More than 2000 years ago, the Silk Road connected, by land and sea, the major economies of the time, enriching the lives of many people along its routes. And now 2000 years later, Chongqing, one of China’s “super-cities”, is part of the effort to revive this great heritage. Chongqing is strategically placed. It is a pivotal node on the One Belt, One Road, connecting the growing economies of South and Southeast Asia with the rest of China It is also an important city along the Yangtze River Economic Belt and a key player in the overall development of the Western Region. In short, Chongqing is a cornerstone of regional connectivity. Singapore is proud to be a partner to Chongqing in this historic project, through the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative, or CCI. And so, I am happy today to welcome you to the second Singapore-China (Chongqing) Financial Conference, to take stock of the progress we have made together and to set new goals for the future. China and Singapore – a vibrant economic relationship The backdrop to CCI is, of course, the larger China-Singapore economic relationship – one of the strongest in Asia. China is Singapore’s largest trading partner. Singapore is China’s fourth largest trading partner in ASEAN.
It would also mean that the Swedish payment infrastructure is to a greater extent harmonised with the rest of the EU, which can increase competition and the quality of the payment services offered to Swedish customers. RIX plays a central role in the Swedish payment system The payment system the Riksbank currently supplies to financial institutions is called RIX. Institutions wishing to become participants in RIX enter into an agreement with the Riksbank. The Riksbank is a public institution, which means that entry to the RIX system is given on competitively neutral terms to institutions meeting the conditions that are set. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of RIX for the Swedish economy. From the time that RIX opens at 0700 hours on a typical working day until it closes at 1700 hours, a good 20,000 payments are settled to a total value of more than  2 According to the international standards on financial infrastructure issued by the CPMI-IOSCO, systemically im-  portant infrastructures should settle in central bank money whenever it is practically possible. 3 The Eurosystem consists of the European Central Bank and the national central banks in the euro area. 2 [8]  SEK 600 billion.4 RIX is the hub of the Swedish payment system and it is therefore also logical that the functions and accessibility of RIX will be in focus when the Riksbank upgrades its capacity to meet the challenges of the future payment market. The Riksbank is not in any unique situation in this respect.