Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Remaking Malaysia - investing in the New Malaysia Opening address by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the Euromoney Conference - “Remaking Malaysia: Investing in the New Malaysia”, Kuala Lumpur, 3 August 2004. *  *  *  Yang Amat Berhormat Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim and good morning, It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this conference on 'Remaking Malaysia and Investing in the New Malaysia'. We are most honoured today by the presence of Yang Amat Berhormat Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Malaysia who has graciously accepted our invitation to deliver the Keynote Address of the Conference. This conference takes place at a time of strengthening economic conditions in the global and domestic economy. At the forefront of investors' minds is the sustainability of these trends. There is also much interest on the policy strategies being adopted and how Malaysia will reposition itself in this more competitive environment. This Conference has brought together key policy makers, investors, fund managers as well as leading corporate and government officials to discuss these issues. Building on the economic success that has been achieved for more than three decades, Malaysia is now taking the opportunity to reposition its strategies to ensure the sustainability of this strong growth performance.

A number of regional and global business processing centres and other regional facilities have been set up including the OHQs, regional offices, international procurement centres and regional distribution centres. Ladies and Gentlemen, As part of the Government policy commitment to improve the delivery system and reduce the cost of doing business, the Central Bank has undertaken a progressive liberalisation of domestic rules and regulations to reduce the cost of doing business. An area of focus has been the rules governing the foreign exchange transactions. Reducing cost of managing risks associated with such transactions include the recent liberalisation of rules on foreign currency accounts, interest rates swaps and hedging. To broaden and deepen our capital markets, the multilateral agencies and multinational  corporations are now allowed to issue bonds in Malaysia. Going forward, Malaysia will continue to undertake further liberalisation while balancing the need to accord flexibility and choices to businesses with the macroeconomic objectives of ensuring stability in financial markets. Ensuring such long-term stability that facilitates planning and investment decisions has been an important part of maintaining our competitive position. In the development of our financial sector, the banking sector continues to be the pillar of the financial system and is now at its strongest position with high level of capitalisation, improving asset quality and stronger profitability. Policy initiatives to strengthen the banking system, including in the areas of regulatory and supervisory frameworks, risk management, corporate governance and best practices in transparency and disclosure have contributed to strengthen the system further.