A key initiative in this regard is the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), a health check-up of national financial sectors made in collaboration with the World Bank. Switzerland volunteered to undergo such a check-up in 2002. Once more, it was a useful and gratifying experience to interact with outside experts. And the reason I am saying this has nothing to do with the fact that the Swiss financial center came out of this surveillance exercise with very high marks. 3. Financial crisis resolution  Let me now turn to the second part of my presentation, the Fund’s role in crisis resolution. Here I have no direct Swiss experience to report on since my country, fortunately, never had to resort to financial support from the Fund. I will therefore speak from the perspective of a medium-size shareholder that believes that financial crises are market failures with potential systemic risks and that the Fund can and should play an important role in resolving them. The nature, scale and spread of financial crises have changed dramatically since the Tequila turmoil in Mexico in 1994. Financial integration and capital account liberalization brought about a huge increase in financial flows. Emerging economies did benefit from this new reallocation of international savings and some staggering economic results were obtained (annual GDP growth between 1986 and 1996 for countries in South-East Asia averaged close to 8 percent). However, the new financial setting also made emerging countries particularly vulnerable to sudden changes in market sentiment.
Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Potential for new linkages and opportunities between Japan and Malaysia Speech by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the Malaysia-Japan Business Forum "Enhancing New Linkages And Opportunities", Kuala Lumpur, 24 August 2007. *  *  *  It is my honour and great pleasure to be here to speak at this important forum which brings together government leaders and the business community from our two countries. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) for inviting me to speak at this Forum. JETRO has played an important role in fostering the economic relations between Malaysia and Japan. While Japan and Malaysia has established strong economic ties, the environment in which we are operating has experienced pronounced changes. These changes present the potential for new linkages and opportunities between Japan and Malaysia. Enhancing interlinkages and integration in Asia Asia today is increasingly recognised as a dynamic growth region in the global economy. Asia's previous success was accomplished in part by strengthening its global interlinkages by exports to the rest of the world. Today, new regional interlinkages are emerging as Asia expands further its trade and investment within the region, a trend that has generated mutually reinforcing regional growth. The Asian economic integration is now already well advanced through the intensification of intra-regional trade and investment. Trade within Asia now accounts for more than half of the total trade of the region.