Muhammad bin Ibrahim: Malaysia and Turkey – the new silk route in Islamic finance – strategies for collaboration, cooperation and smart partnership Opening remarks by Mr Muhammad bin Ibrahim, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at a business seminar on Islamic finance Istanbul: “Malaysia-Turkey Islamic finance cooperation: new solution – preferred partner”, Istanbul, 29 September 2011. *  *  *  I have the honour today to welcome distinguished guests to the Business Seminar organised by Bank Negara Malaysia, held in this beautiful and historic city of Istanbul. The theme “Malaysia and Turkey: The New Silk Route in Islamic Finance – Strategies for Collaboration, Cooperation and Smart Partnership” was chosen as a reflection of our desire to strengthen economic and business ties for the mutual benefits of both countries. The emergence of the “Silk Route”, a term coined by Governor Dr Zeti in 2006 opens up exciting prospects for countries and businesses. The new “Silk Route” not only carries traditional trade of goods and services of old but also manufactured goods, technological innovation and know-how, portfolio flows, private equity investment and mobility of human capital and knowledge. Today, Islamic financial products and services are truly “new” additions to this trade. Let me first express our heartfelt appreciation to His Excellency Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad for accepting our invitation to speak at this event, sharing his thoughts on Islamic finance. Tun Dr. Mahathir needs no introduction.
Dimitar Bogov: Challenges of bolstering growth rates and ensuring their sustainability Opening statement by Mr Dimitar Bogov, Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, to the Bank for International Settlements Working Party on Monetary Policy in Central and Eastern Europe, Skopje, 11–12 February 2016. *  *  *  Dear colleagues, dear guests, It is my honour to welcome you for the Annual Meeting of the BIS Working Party on Monetary Policy in Central and Eastern Europe, hosted by the National bank of the Republic of Macedonia. I look forward to discussions on the key issues the policymakers are currently facing. Many of the economies in our region have strong trade and financial linkages with the rest of the world. Therefore, a natural starting point would be to assess how conducive the global environment is for our key goal of bolstering growth rates and ensuring their sustainability. Unfortunately, almost a decade after the acute stage of the crisis, it seems that the global environment is still fragile. Although the world economy is recovering, growth rates do not seem to be strong enough, and what is even more problematic, this “low growth mode” might be here to stay. The frequent downward revisions of global growth prospects indicate that uncertainty is weighing on growth. Global growth rates are staggering slightly above 3%, on average, and the medium-term prospects do not seem to differ much.