In addition, an economic or financial crisis often would prompt a rethink of our approach to policy-making and of relevance, a re-evaluation of the statistics we use as the basis for our decisions. In this regard, the recent Global Financial Crisis is no different. Allow me to highlight two lessons from the recent financial crisis. First, the crisis highlighted that our understanding of the financial system was insufficient. Financial innovation had resulted in a significant increase in financial intermediation taking place outside the regulated banking sector – what is today known as shadow banking. Excessive risk-taking and leverage, by both regulated and shadow financial institutions, had significantly increased the vulnerabilities in the financial system. Focus on the stability of BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  individual institutions alone was not sufficient. Instead, attention is required on the stability of the financial system as a whole. These underscore the importance of improving data coverage to keep pace with the constantly evolving economic and financial landscape. Second, the unprecedented scale and scope of the crisis demonstrated that the interplay between exposures in the regulated financial system, the unregulated shadow banking system and the real economy can have interrelated implications. Financial imbalances – in the form of excessive leverage and asset price bubbles – had built up amid stable inflation prior to the crisis. Consequently, the long drawn out process of deleveraging and balance sheet repair by financial institutions, households and governments have suppressed aggregate demand amid less effective expansionary policies.

In hindsight, more micro-data would have detected increasing systemic vulnerabilities in the residential property market, as well as increasing exposures among economic agents throughout the economy. To this end, more granular data would overcome the limitations of aggregated data in detecting vulnerabilities that are concentrated in selected segments of the economy and financial system. While these challenges in totality may appear to be rather daunting, I strongly believe they are surmountable, especially with greater collaboration amongst statisticians, compilers and end-users of data. It is with this in mind that the Regional Statistics Conference was envisioned, organised and realised. On behalf of the Local Organising Committee, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our key partners in making this conference a reality. Special thanks to the ISI and its SEA Regional Network for choosing to have this inaugural regional conference in Kuala Lumpur. I would also like to thank Tan Sri Andrew Sheng; Professor Dr. Pedro Silva; and Mr. Agus Sudjianto, as well as all paper presenters for sharing their thoughts and experiences at the conference. As part of our effort to encourage more involvement of young statisticians in statistical conferences and to recognise their participation in this conference, we will confer the Young Statistician’s Award of the ISI-RSC 2014 at the end of this conference. There are 26 entries for 4 prizes under this award. The winners will be announced at the closing ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.