This seemed a contradiction in terms to many countries – liberalising and opening up but at the same time developing resilience in the financial centre. But we have achieved both. We have managed the tension between liberalisation and developing resilience. I think we’ve managed it rather well. If you look at what happened during the Asian Financial Crisis and subsequently, the Global Financial Crisis, we have come out as one of the safest financial systems in the world. So that was an important third phase – liberalising and opening the financial centre but also developing further resilience. Our credibility today rests on each of these three major phases in MAS’ development and policies – from the foundational years, to the period when we reoriented monetary policy and then in the last phase, liberalising and developing further resilience of the financial centre. The credibility has added up over the years. I also want to say that MAS has become an organisation of excellence. This has particularly been due, in my opinion, to the organisational development efforts that began especially in the mid-1980s, when Mr JY Pillay came in as the Managing Director, followed in subsequent years by Mr Lee Ek Tieng. There was a great focus on organisational development from the mid-80s. It happened that both Mr Pillay and Mr Lee Ek Tieng were amongst the most senior leaders in the public sector. They led the transformation of the MAS as an organisation of people.
The MAS staff responsible for the Gallery have put a lot of thought into its design and content. But the Gallery will keep evolving, and we will want it to stay relevant to Singaporeans young and old. It is significant too that we are opening the Gallery in 2016, when we commemorate the 45th anniversary of the MAS. If we think about what we have achieved in these 45 years, what’s most precious is credibility. Credibility is the most precious asset that a central bank and a financial regulator can have. The MAS’ credibility was founded in its early years. I want to mention the leaders and staff who were involved in putting in placed these foundations of today’s credibility. Mr Hon Sui Sen in particular, our first Chairman (1971-1980), Mr Michael Wong Pak-Shong, who was the Managing Director, and the staff at that time, including Mr Ng Kok Song, Mrs Ong-Ang Ai Boon, Mrs Elizabeth Sam. Together they built an organisation, bringing together no fewer than nine different offices and functions in Government at the time, melding them together in one organisation. They also set the foundations for an international financial centre. Singapore was not a serious financial centre until then. Mr Hon Sui Sen and his team built the foundation for a financial centre that went beyond Singapore.