While this new decade beckons the prospect of immense opportunities in Islamic finance, our ability to realize this potential will be determined by the ability to recognize the shared responsibility it demands and to collectively advance forward the agenda of financial stability and resilience to achieve our ultimate goal of a shared prosperity. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5
In this respect, flexible wage setting, resulting in particular in sufficient wage differentiation, is crucial in order to strengthen or at least maintain competitiveness and improve employment opportunities, in particular for less-skilled workers. •  Furthermore, many studies point to the potential that competition has to increase employment and to boost productivity trends by improving production efficiency and by enhancing the incentive to invest and innovate 1. In the European Union, significant progress has been made in strengthening competition and increasing economic integration over the last two decades. The single market has already brought sizable benefits for the European economy. 2 However, much remains to be done, in particular in some market services sectors. The extension and deepening of the internal market remains a priority as regards further financial market integration, the pursuit of effective  1  See the ECB Occasional Paper Series No 44 “Competition, productivity and prices in the euro area services sector”, by the Task Force of the Monetary Policy Committee of the ESCB, April 2006. 2  The European Commission recently estimated that the single market has brought about an increase of 2.75 million extra jobs and an extra increase in welfare of € per head in 2006, corresponding to a 2.15% increase of the EU’s GDP over the period 1992-2006 (See European Commission, “The single market: review of achievements”, November 2007). 2  BIS Review 31/2008  competition in the energy market, and the implementation of the Services Directive.