Transcript:
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, Governor and fellow attendees at the Ante Čičin-Šain Lecture. You'll be glad to hear that I only intend to say a few words, not too many. From experience, I appreciate that if I don't say them at the beginning, I'll be talking to myself at the end, so you'll have to put up with me for a few moments. First of all, I am under strict instruction to convey the greetings and good wishes of your Ambassador in Dublin and First Secretary there, miss Jasna Ognjanovac and Ružica Januš who cannot be here today due to the large amount of work they do in Dublin on your behalf. Indeed, I'm glad to say that this month they've already had one event and are holding the Croatian Investment Forum on October 22nd. I am also delighted to see Susan Bardon from the Irish Embassy in Ljubljana here. It is just appropriate to note the fact that during the course of these lectures embassies have always given all the support when able and when asked. The lecture, as you can see, is named in honor of the late Ante Čičin-Šain. I feel that after eight such events, most of them, unfortunately, since Ante passed away, I've learned there's little I can say about Ante that hasn't already been said before. Suffice to say that the choice to name this lecture series after him is reflected in the fact that he was the first governor of the national bank in independent Croatia and marks the achievements he attained when he was Croatian Ambassador to Ireland, but was in fact based in London. I think it was an enormous achievement for him to do as much as he did and make as many friends and develop as many contacts as he did when operating in Dublin. I'm sure Susan will be well aware of the difficulties that can exist in that regard. While Ante isn't here, it is particular pleasure to meet up again with Vesna, who still looks as beautiful as she did when I first met her back in 1995, and Jerko, who certainly doesn't look like he did in 1995. The significance of this lecture can perhaps be best expressed by alluding back to the visit of our Irish President Michael D. Higgins to Zagreb earlier this year, when he spent four days in quite a long state visit in Croatia. Obviously, that was organized with the assistance of both embassies. Another former Ambassador to Ireland, Nenad Prelog, played a considerable part in what I believe was one of the several triumphs of the visit, the debate in the University of Zagreb. Referring to Croatian-Irish relations, President Higgins singled this event out as the most symbolic of the achievements marking those relations. I look forward to the continuation of these relations even if it does not always have to fall on us. No doubt, at some stage, we'll be replaced and the lecture series will go on. That brings me to the speakers today. Tomislav is our host and he works for Boris. Therefore, he said all the right things about Boris. However, I don't work for Boris. Kieran Corrigan is a good friend of mine, but neither do I work for him. Therefore, I will share with you some briefer descriptions, than Tomislav, of them. There used to be an English television program called This is Your Life. I don't know if any of you remember it, or if it made to this part of the world, but it effectively consisted of various people from the past, meeting someone they hadn't seen for years, and there was always a short synopsis of the person that they were doing the program about. I was thinking about how difficult it would be to do it about Boris. Where would one start? Banker, economist, lecturer, professor, author, negotiator, scholar, tennis ace, swimming champ, water polo addict, gastronomist, enologist. Some would say bon vivant par excellence. Governor Vujčić, this is your lecture. And in the green corner, although, I assume, this will not ascend into a boxing match, we have Kieran Corrigan. Like Governor Vujčić, Mr Kiernan is also an author, a lecturer, a scholar, a negotiator, a swimmer, a gastronomist and an enologist. However, he is not a banker, as far as I know. As regards sports, he has played pretty nifty football, but his real mission in life has been to be equally nifty professionally in tax specialization, or perhaps more accurately, in tax minimization. Apart from his professional accomplishments, there is a certain appropriateness to having an Irish response when the subject of the lecture is Banking in Europe: What went wrong and how to fix it. Before I sit down, there is only one more point I would like to make. We are going to hear a lot about all the rules that are going to be brought about banking, but I would simply like to say to you: Always remember the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. Thank you.
