First, I would like to draw your attention to the benefits and challenges of globalization from the perspective and actual experience of Thailand. Second, I want to identify the main challenges of globalization and how to meet them. And last, I would like to conclude with a discussion of how Thailand should position itself in order to reap the benefits of globalization while avoiding its pitfalls in the long run First, I wish to emphasize that globalization brings both opportunities and challenges to small open economies. Thailand is no stranger to this reality and successive administrations have shown strong commitment to supporting the progress of global economic integration. Nevertheless, we should also put the issue of benefits and challenges of financial and economic globalization into a proper perspective. I would like to do this by examining the experience of Thailand during the past two decades. Over the past twenty years, it is an undeniable fact that globalization has brought substantial gains to Thailand. The evidence is all around us. International trade and investment have boomed. Thai exports expanded by over 11 percent per year during the same period. Our large and vibrant export sector sends goods all over the world. And, in turn, Thai consumers enjoy goods from all corners of the globe. On the investment side, healthy joint ventures and foreign investment abound. Interaction at the person-to-person level has also grown, underlying the fundamental importance of the sharing of knowledge and skills between nations.
And UK GDP has now risen for 38 consecutive quarters (albeit in the case of 2001 Q4, only just! ), the longest continuous expansion since post-war records began. Achieving low and stable inflation is the best contribution that monetary policy can make to the wider economic goals of sustainable growth and employment. Having an inflation target certainly does not mean that we ignore  BIS Review 18/2002  1  real activity. We have discretion over how rapidly we try to bring inflation back to target when and if it diverges from 2½%. And we regularly publish our best estimate about the likely future path of growth up to a two year horizon. But the aim of policy is clear - we do what is necessary to keep inflation on target. As you know, there are nine of us on the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, and we meet once a month to make our interest rate decision. This is a rigorous process, and rightly so. But, of course, agreement on process need not, and does not, imply universal agreement on the appropriate stance of policy, as our minutes show. Indeed, an industry has grown up geared to guessing MPC members' personal habits, psychoanalysing our personalities and classifying us into different species of the aviary. But it is important to recognise, I think, that disagreements are evidence of the strength of the system, not its weakness.