In fact, what did I do last weekend? Well, I was in Basel, Switzerland, at the BIS. This is where central bankers get together from across the world, exchange information with one another. So, the first thing is to explain ourselves to people in the community. Because the Federal Reserve is pretty mysterious in terms of – when I went to grad school even, I wasn’t really sure again what the Federal Reserve was. Had to be explained to me. The second thing we do in the community, and this is the more important piece, is to really learn what’s going on, on the ground, in the community. What’s happening in terms of businesses – are they successful? If they’re having trouble, what are the reasons for the trouble? Do they have access to the credit? Can they find people with the job skills they need to support their businesses? What are the challenges in the community, in terms of education, in terms of transportation? Queens, one of the issues is that if you’re not located near a subway line, it’s pretty hard to get around in Queens, and that has pretty significant implications for people’s ability to get to and from work, which is important in terms of economic development. Another issue is the affordability of housing. Queens is actually doing quite well. If you look at the employment growth in Queens over the last few years, it’s been very strong. Just like New York City as a whole.
More importantly, it is to avert a sharp slowdown in economic activities. Financial liberalisation Bank Negara Malaysia has also remained committed to the objectives of the Financial Sector Master Plan (FSMP) issued in 2001. The recently announced liberalization measures, for example, forms part of the concluding phase of the FSMP which is to liberalise the banking sector by allowing for the increase in operational flexibilities, product offering and, the issuance of new licenses by 2011. But, as capacity and institutional building efforts continue to be pursued, it must be complemented by enhancements in regulatory, supervisory and surveillance framework to preserve the integrity and resilience of the financial system. Clearly this is the distinction which must be made with de-regularisation per se. Islamic banking Islamic banking also remains as one of the key agendas under the FSMP. Also in the recently announced liberalisation measures, we will issue up to two new licenses given the growing demand and the need to give further boost to the MIFC initiative. As we have more than two decades of experience in this area, Bank Negara Malaysia will continue to build on this competitive advantage to ensure Malaysia remains at the forefront of global Islamic banking. It is therefore encouraging to note that Islamic finance has continued to demonstrate its evolution and strong growth as assets have expanded by 22% to RM192 billion in 2008 alone and now accounts for 15.0% of the total assets in the industry.