Ravi Menon: Preparing the workforce for a changing financial industry Welcome remarks by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Institute of Banking and Finance Distinction Evening 2018, Singepore, 4 October 2018. * * * Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Trade and Industry, Members of the IBF Council, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the IBF Distinction Evening 2018. We are delighted to have Mr Chan Chun Sing as our Guest-of-Honour. Minister Chan, as you know, has played a leading role in the labour movement, to help prepare our workers for the future. And now Minister for Trade and Industry, he is leading Singapore’s economic development efforts. He will bring together his insights from these two important roles and share his thoughts later on building a smart workforce that is ready for the economy of tomorrow. The IBF Distinction Evening is probably the only large platform that brings together the entire financial industry – banks, insurers, asset managers, financial advisers. It is an opportune occasion – not only to catch up with colleagues and friends and celebrate our achievements as an industry – but to also reflect on the big drivers of change and key priorities for us as an industry. There is much celebrate. Singapore’s financial centre is doing well. Growth in financial services in H1 this year was 8%, nearly twice as fast as the overall economy.
It is precisely to assess these risks that the NGFS launched a dedicated task forcexxii earlier this year. I have the great honor to co-lead this task force with Saskia de Vries from the DNB. It includes many members from all over the world. 5  Page 6 sur 12 Luckily, we do not start from scratch. For instance, economists recognize that biodiversity enables ecosystems to provide essential services that sustain life on our planet (called “ecosystem services”). As they regenerate themselves, they are able to provide basic but essential goods (such as food, wood, water, etc.) but also regulation services (such as climate regulation, water purification or pollination) and cultural services such as touristic activities. Our economies are deeply dependent on these ecosystem services. A study indicates than half of global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on ecosystem servicesxxiii and another study finds that that the total economic value of ecosystem services at the global level amounts to more than annual global GDP.xxiv But let’s be careful: we also know that such monetary assessments of ecosystem services have many limitations. For instance, Robert Costanza and co-authors (in the study I just referred to) acknowledge that such assessments of ecosystem services help to increase the awareness of policy makers and economists about the importance of biodiversity, but have limited value in terms of decision-making. There are at least three reasons to proceed carefully here.