Adequate documentation of data quality and the tracking of known data issues will help ensure that the data are properly used and will reduce the likelihood of user misunderstanding of the data, a risk that can lead to inappropriate data usage and erroneous results. Our limited experience to date with data stewards who have been explicitly hired or assigned to this role has been very positive. This investment has helped accelerate data usage, ensure analytical quality, and maintain vendor contract compliance. Importantly, it has significantly reduced the burden on senior staff in responding to data questions and requests for data or analyses. Successful implementation of this model requires not only a formal recognition of the data steward role, but an appropriate level of resources to support data stewardship, including some training in the foundational disciplines of data management. Incentives may be required to induce subject matter experts to take a formal data steward role. To provide these incentives requires thinking through career concerns of people, and may require a whole new career track for data stewardship, one that provides sufficient autonomy to provide the steward time and incentives to conduct data analysis and research. These investments are very worthwhile, because they unlock the potential in innovative datasets and make progress possible in answering crucial policy questions. Learning from others Before I close, I’d like to note that data innovation is challenging, but there is an effective and widely available way to achieve it, and that is to learn from others.

A major initiative during the year was to promote increased access to financing to the new areas of growth as well as to small and medium scale enterprises, including for micro enterprises. This aims to enhance the potential and capacity of domestic indigenous enterprises to grow and thus enhance their contribution to the economy. In the area of Islamic banking and finance, policy initiatives have been implemented to position Malaysia to become a leading international Islamic financial centre. Earlier this month, the Malaysian Government had launched the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre or MIFC initiative. This initiative is aimed at building greater intermediation linkages between the East Asian, the West Asian and Middle East regions which will in turn, further expand inter-regional trade and cross border investment flows. This would also contribute towards a more efficient allocation of capital and thus enhance the prospects for mutually reinforcing intra-regional growth. In addition, the enhanced opportunities for raising financing offers would also facilitate greater risk diversification. To achieve this goal, efforts and resources are being directed towards achieving two broad objectives: •  First, to become an international leader in the origination, issuance as well as trading of Islamic capital market and treasury instruments, fund and wealth management services, offshore Islamic financial services, and takaful and retakaful. •  Second, to position Malaysia as a centre of excellence for Islamic banking and finance education, training, consultancy and research.