Notably, this includes the formation of a dedicated platform with the Securities Commission and other stakeholders to streamline measures for development of the national alternative finance ecosystem. Additionally, initiatives such as the deployment of Dana Penjana under Penjana Kapital, a 1-to-1 matching program for funds raised by venture capitals, are important public private partnerships utilising alternative finance to spur early-stage innovation. The investee companies here today, involved in a variety of innovative fields across finance, are testament to this. Beyond regulator or government-led efforts, capital market intermediaries – such as asset managers and large institutional investors – can also play a critical role in mobilising capital more actively to firms, especially SMEs and start-ups. For now, a large proportion of venture capitalbacked deals in Malaysia remains facilitated by the public sector entities. There is considerable room to increase private sector involvement here. Another potential avenue for unlocking investor funds could be through greater Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) participation in VC funding activities. By investing in the VC firm, as opposed to the start-up itself, the technical know-how in start-up investing could be built up over time, without the instance of crowding-out VCs through direct competition in deal flow. Closing Let me conclude. The Digital Era is already upon us. In the next few years we will see more advancements and some of this, are unknown to us today. Some of you as industry entrepreneurs have a better vision on this.

This is recently evident through the surge of applications in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, big data and blockchain, which promise to not only yield better business outcomes but enhance the overall human experience. In the fintech space, we are seeing applications such as eKYC for digital onboarding, telematics for insurance and invisible payments, all powered in some part by the technologies above. As we transition from the old economy into the new, digitalised economy, further investments in digital assets and business models will be instrumental for Malaysia. This includes investing in common digital infrastructures at the national level, such as payment systems, digital identity and 5G connectivity, which are critical to facilitate end-to-end digitalisation of the value chain. We 2/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  hope that the availability of these digital infrastructures will help support and sustain the growth of a vibrant fintech ecosystem in Malaysia. Again, asset managers and capital are in a unique position to drive greater technology adoption across the economy through their shareholder advocacy role. Take open data as an example. The benefits from an open data ecosystem are multifold through better risk management, increased business efficiencies and better customer choices. Economies that embrace data sharing for finance alone could see GDP gains of between 1-5% by 2030 with benefits flowing to customers and financial institutions2. However, incentivising adoption by ecosystem actors remains challenging. I see the capital market industry having a major role in plugging this gap.