I am pleased to note that many Malaysian companies have already established their presence in the global construction industry with commendable achievements. The number of overseas projects awarded to Malaysian contractors has increased by 43% to 40 in 2008 valued at RM8.5 billion, from just 28 projects valued at RM2.9 billion in 2004. In 2008, the Middle East region being the major end-users of the projects undertaken by Malaysian contractors, accounted for nearly RM6 billion or 68% of the total value of the projects comprising various sectors including energy and transportation. Indeed, the achievement  BIS Review 7/2010  1  signifies that our local contractors do have competitive advantage to reap the vast opportunities in the global market. In complementing the efforts of local contractors to strengthen their international presence, relevant authorities and institutions should be continued to enhance and improve the enabling environment. In this regard, I am pleased to note that the CIDB has effectively played a key role in promoting the capabilities and strength of Malaysian contractors to the relevant parties in the global market. Apart from having well established companies with excellent track record to undertake infrastructure projects, the other critical component in ensuring the success of infrastructure development is the availability and accessibility to financing. Bank Negara Malaysia has always accorded and will continue to accord high priority to ensure that financing continues to be available to support the needs of the economy.
The prerequisite for this confidence is price stability, which is the responsibility of the Eurosystem (the ECB and the 19 national central banks); we have successfully achieved this primary mission. In France, the inflation rate has more than halved: 1.4% per year on average between 2002 and 2021, compared to 3.4% between 1982 and 2001. This is not just a statistic, it is a very concrete reality, measurable by a few examples. The price of a kilo of bread was EUR 2.7 in December 2001 and EUR 3.6 in November 2021, i.e. an annual increase of 1.4%. The price of pasta has increased at a much slower rate, with an average increase of 0.1% per year. The euro has therefore helped to protect the purchasing power of French citizens, which has increased by 25% over the last twenty years. The temporary “inflation hump” that we have been seeing for the past few months, associated with an unprecedented economic rebound, does not change this observation, and I will return to this later. A forward-looking euro means new banknotes after 2024, with a new design, and even more secure – there are now only 17 counterfeits per million banknotes, making the euro one of the most secure currencies in the world. It is also a digital euro. The investigation phase for a “digital retail euro” was launched on 1 October last year, for a period of two years.