HONG KONG: Joseph Yam, the longest-serving central-bank governor who resigned his 16-year post as chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) yesterday, will always be remembered for the Hong Kong and US dollar's pegged exchange rate system that has strengthened and developed the city as an international financial center.

To the city's bankers, financial workers and business reporters, he is an outspoken central-bank governor who is always lucid and to the point, traits evident in his popular online column known as Viewpoint, posted on the Monetary Authority's official website.

During his long tenure, Yam has devoted much of the Monetary Authority's resources to promoting closer financial links with the mainland. He was keen on encouraging the use of Hong Kong as the testing ground of mainland financial reform. The establishment of Hong Kong as an offshore renminbi center has been known to be one of Yam's pet projects.

"Finance is a personal interest of mine and a subject that is dear to my heart," Yam told reporters yesterday afternoon before he finished his last day's work.

"I will miss my job and my colleagues. I still feel I have lots of things I have not finished," he said.

Yam's term witnessed some dramatic times, from the Asian financial crisis in 1997 to last year's global credit crisis. Yam has always been a strong defender of the Hong Kong-United States dollar peg exchange rate.

In Viewpoint, he clearly presents the complexity of balancing numerous variables to keep the currency links intact. His views on the financial market status and trade are widely regarded as highly informative to business reporters.

In his last Viewpoint article, he said he was glad that his columns have at least contributed to promoting a better understanding of monetary and financial affairs in Hong Kong. "I hope they have also contributed to strengthening public confidence in our monetary and financial systems."

Yam joined the government as a statistician in 1971 and became an economist in 1976. By 1991, he was director of the Office of the Exchange Fund. The 60-year-old has been chief executive since the Monetary Authority was set up in April 1993. The HKMA is a merger of the Office of the Exchange Fund, responsible for Hong Kong's reserves, with the Office of the Commissioner of Banking, a watchdog agency answering to the Finance Secretary.

The SAR government has appointed Norman Chan, former director of Yam's office, to head the monetary authority as his replacement.

(HK Edition 10/01/2009 page3)