One, greater capacity and expertise to prepare projects. This is critical at the early stages of project development, especially in developing economies. Transition projects need to be well designed with clear targets and transparent metrics to draw private capital. Two, better risk mitigation and risk transfer mechanisms. We need catalytic and concessional funding from the public sector, multilateral development banks, and philanthropic sources, to improve project bankability and crowd in additional multiples of private sector funding. This will mean re-looking the financing models and incentive structures of multilateral development banks. Three, a more synergistic financial ecosystem. We need to recycle capital by taking loans off bank balance sheets and structuring them in a form that institutional investors can participate in. Singapore is taking active steps to scale transition and blended finance. Infrastructure Asia, launched by MAS and Enterprise Singapore, provides expertise in project scoping, shares best practices in project development, and facilitates infrastructure financing deals in the region. Clifford Capital, whose borrowings are guaranteed by the Singapore Government, provides debt financing to crowd in equity participation for infrastructure projects. Pentagreen Capital, a partnership between HSBC and Temasek Holdings, will deploy blended finance at scale to unlock marginally bankable projects in Southeast Asia. Convergence, a global network for blended finance, has launched a $ million grant scheme supported by MAS, which will fund feasibility studies and proof of concept work on innovative blended finance solutions in target sectors that are under-capitalised in Asia. Singapore is also partnering global efforts to promote transition and blended finance.

LNG capacity start-ups in Australia and North America which will boost new LNG supplies amidst stagnating demand will put more pressure on LNG prices, hence further disrupting the LNG market. Due to low oil and LNG prices, the profitability of oil majors and National Oil Companies (NOCs) has been severely eroded. The impact has been pronounced. More than 300,000 oil and gas workers have been laid off globally since mid-2014; some USD 380 billion of global oil and gas projects have been deferred or cancelled; and more than USD 150 billion worth of assets have been planned for disposal or divestment. Given Malaysia’s openness and high financial and trade integration with the rest of the world, the Malaysian economy is not isolated from these developments. On the external front, lower global demand continues to weigh down on Malaysia’s export performance. Investment activities especially in the upstream oil and gas sector, contracted for the first time since the global financial crisis in 2015, after expanding by an average of 16% from 2010 to 2014. However, investment activity in the manufacturing and services sectors remained  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  resilient, and is expected to underpin investment growth moving forward. Private consumption remained relatively resilient and anchored domestic growth, especially during the first half of the year, driven by sustained income and employment levels. Going forward, domestic demand is expected to remain a key driver of economic growth in Malaysia. We should expect Malaysian economic growth to range between 4.0 to 4.5 % for 2016.