This will also promote a better understanding by SMEs of their financial conditions, drawn from the analysis provided through the Bureau reports. Initiatives have been taken to continuously develop new financing products that meet the evolving needs of SMEs in various segments and stages of growth. This includes the introduction of the new CGC guarantee scheme to assist start-up SMEs that have insufficient collateral and insufficient financial track record to obtain bank financing. Finally, to complement the financial infrastructure, initiatives have been taken to develop comprehensive financial advisory services. Bank Negara Malaysia's Laman Informasi Nasihat dan Khidmat or BNMLINK, and BNMTELELINK, which is a dedicated Contact Centre, provide financial advisory services to the SMEs. In addition, Bank Negara has also  BIS Review 90/2008  3  established the Small Debt Resolution Scheme where viable SMEs that are constrained by non-performing loans are assisted through loan restructuring and the provision of additional funding. Today, SME financing has become robust with financial institutions being the main provider of SME financing. In 2007, banking institutions approved RM55 billion in new financing to more than 109,000 SME accounts. For the first five months of 2008 alone, a total of RM22.7 billion in new financing was approved to more than 55,800 SME accounts. As at end-May 2008, outstanding SME financing by banking institutions amounted to RM120.3 billion. In 2008, banking institutions are projected to approve RM61 billion of financing to more than 115,000 SME accounts, increasing at an annual growth rate of 10%.

8 In addition, in the performance of their statistical tasks, both the ECB and the NCBs adhere to the statistical principles and ethical and quality standards set out in their “Public commitment with respect to the ESCB’s statistical function”. 9 The independence granted to the ESCB by the Treaty means that there is no political interference in the  6  See “The introduction of harmonised competitiveness indicators for euro area countries” in the February 2007 issue of the ECB’s Monthly Bulletin, and http://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/exchange/hci/html/hci_200801.en.html. 7  See “Review of statistics on payments and securities trading, clearing and settlement” in the January 2008 issue of the ECB’s Monthly Bulletin. 8  See http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/ecbstatisticsqualityframework200804en.pdf. 9  See http://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/html/pcstats.en.html. Both this commitment and the framework governing the quality of ECB statistics take due account of the European Statistics Code of Practice for the national and Community statistical authorities, while also reflecting the specific governance structure of the ESCB. BIS Review 50/2008  3  compilation and dissemination of statistical information. Similarly, the Treaty states that compilers of statistics in the NSIs and Eurostat should also act in full scientific independence. In addition to these essential preconditions, statistics also need to be adequately explained. This applies, in particular, to one of the most important statistics for the ECB’s monetary policy making, namely the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP).