The ongoing liberalisation process meant that it was no longer important to divide the balance of payments statistics into koruna and foreign currency transactions. This classification was replaced by a standard breakdown into transactions between residents and non-residents. Numerous statistics linked with regulation were gradually abolished as individual areas of economic activity were liberalised. These examples merely illustrate how the central bank’s entire statistical system was rebuilt from scratch. Let me now move on to the more recent past. In 1999 we began to co-operate closely with European institutions. The main topics included monetary and banking statistics, balance of payments statistics and more recently also financial accounts, government financial statistics and general economic statistics. The development of statistics was influenced by a need to standardise each area to ensure compatibility between the EU Member States and the candidate countries. Hand in hand with these contacts, we began to work much more closely with the Czech Statistical Office. In the area of statistics the Czech Statistical Office is the natural and closest partner of the Czech National Bank, since these two institutions are the major producers of statistical information in the Czech Republic. The Czech Statistical Office conducts a far wider range of statistical surveys, providing aggregate information on the national economy, territory, climate, environment, population, elections and other areas of life and activity of our country. The Czech National Bank is above all a user of economic  BIS Review 49/2004  1  statistics and collaborates most closely in this area.

It is evident that businesses must transition to be sustainable to keep pace with the global race towards net zero. As an exporting nation, Malaysia must also prepare for tightening of climate-related regulations that may be imposed by our trading partners. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that form 37.4% of Malaysia's economy3 are the most susceptible. According to report findings by the Sustainable Finance Institute Asia 2022, SMEs stand to lose RM292 billion in revenue due to non-ESG compliance4. The silver lining behind these adversities is the immense growth opportunities. Studies have shown that sustainability investments reward businesses through higher premiums 5 , better brand value, and lower operating expenses6. Without the necessary support, the ambition to achieve net zero would be a tall order for SMEs, which lack funding and knowledge for meaningful transition. In this regard, the Bank launched the RM2 billion Low-Carbon Transition Facility (LCTF) in February 2022 to fund SMEs' working capital or capital expenditures related to low-carbon practices at an affordable rate. Beyond that, other facilities such as the High Tech and Green Facility and SME Automation and Digitalisation Facility are also available for  1/3  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  SMEs. In this respect, it is important to note that financing by the financial sector has returned to the pre-pandemic level with funds by BNM only constituting less than 10% of the total financing. We acknowledge that technical know-how is equally crucial for successful transformation.