Indeed, it  would require more than just adjustments in exchange rates. The nature and breadth of the adjustments will be important to achieve a long-term solution. With its young workforce, growing productivity, competitive and dynamic economies, there is great potential for the Asian economies to contribute towards the re-balancing of global growth. With rising income levels in regional economies, particularly among the growing middle income group in China, India and the ASEAN economies, there is potential for an expansion of demand within the region. The rebalancing of global growth across the world will eventually contribute towards reducing the prevailing imbalances. Malaysia's own agility to absorb and respond to the external and domestic challenges has allowed us to efficiently shift resources to new areas of growth, to new areas of comparative advantage and thus, sustain our long-term prospects. Going forward, Malaysia's economic policy will therefore continue to focus on ensuring that the economy's flexibility and resilience is sustained. With the strengthening of the economy, the financial system and our fundamentals, the opportunity has been taken to deregulate and liberalise the environment further. The most recent policy initiative in this direction has been the shift in the exchange rate regime to a managed float. Under this regime, exchange rate stability will continue to be a primary objective of exchange rate policy. Malaysia is a trading economy that is highly integrated with the world economy, and in this context, a stable exchange rate environment continues to be important.
In Zambia, with the growing emphasis on trade within the regional economic groupings like SADC and COMESA, plastic money in the form of credit cards, is a very practical way of facilitating settlement of cross border transactions. Another benefit which may be associated, with the more extensive use of e-money is the potential increase in tax compliance among the retail and wholesale sectors. The use of credit cards generates accurate records of purchases which currently may not be captured by the Zambia Revenue Authority because business houses may declare false figures. With the use of a credit card there is no provision to cheat the taxman by refraining from issuing a receipt as the record of the transaction will speak for itself. Whilst on the subject of greater tax compliance, I would want to see some form of requirement for most businesses to use points of sale terminals and other non-cash forms of payment in our shopping malls and central business district businesses where we see a resistance from businesses to embrace this technology in favour of cash. But let me end my remarks this evening by pointing out a number of problems and challenges that might be associated with the use of credit cards. The biggest disadvantage of credit cards is that they encourage the holders to spend money they don’t have. If the credit card does not require that you pay off your balance each month, this balance will accumulate.