utilitarianism, which has been deeply influential in developing the modern frameworks for economic and political decision making today. in short, utilitarianism, developed by jeremy bentham and john stuart mill in the 17th and 18th centuries, proposed a measure of ethics based on – ‘ the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people ’. on the surface, this is an attractive proposition, that is the goodness of an action is determined by its outcome in promoting common welfare. both utilitarianism and the islamic principle of al - masalih al mursalah are rooted in the rational pursuit of public welfare. however, a major critique of utilitarian ethics is that it ignores the interests of the minority in favour of the majority, downplays the importance of family and society over individualism and strangers, and prioritises aggregate benefits over other ethical principles such as justice or equality. one could thus argue that the maqasid shariah, which underpins the foundation of islamic finance and the islamic economy, has a more holistic perspective on the pursuit of public interests, in that it aims to leave no one behind in pursuit of prosperity while building a cohesive society. in malaysia, islamic financial institutions are leading the sustainability agenda and spearheading 1 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches sustainable finance through the adoption of value - based intermediation ( vbi ) initiatives. vbi is the vehicle to transform the industry, from one focused on profits and shariah compliance to one that is also focused on positive impact. through vbi, islamic finance will bring various stakeholders together to advance the sustainability agenda, encouraging islamic financial institutions to assess how they create value and impact, particularly in response to changing economic, social and environmental conditions. this will support the socioeconomic development in line with malaysia ’ s long - term agenda of economic growth and shared prosperity for all. the commitment by the islamic finacial institutions has been encouraging. the formation of the vbi community of practitioners manifests the leadership by islamic banks in this area with some of its members also being part of the joint committee on climate change ( jcc ) that was recently formed in september and chaired by the bank and securities commission. the jcc aims to look at and create greater synergy in development of climate - related solutioning for the capital and financial markets. it should be noted that many vbi offerings of islamic banks are already meeting contemporary sustainability themes but more will be forthcoming. those already on offer

in the mid 1980s. a changes occurred in this view. the focus became more on increasing efficiency in the utility companies. in addition, there was a growing realization that while a considerable part of the activities carried out by the utility companies had monopolistic characteristics, certain activities did not. the latter could in fact be provided in a competitive environment. hence, the utility industry or parts of it were liberalized by allowing competition. in addition, the ownership of certain companies was transferred from public to private hands. regulation was now aimed at facilitating the introduction of competition or “ creating a level playing field ”. the privatization of the uk energy sector in the 1980s triggered a wave of privatization attempts in other countries. although many countries opted to customize the uk ’ s privatization principles to fit their own specific circumstances, the common denominator in these approaches was the separation of the transmission and distribution of electricity from the production and retail sale thereof. bis central bankers ’ speeches however, the liberalization of energy markets has not always led to lower consumer prices, as expected. according to certain studies, prices might have only shifted between market segments, or even increased compared to prior to the liberalization. some studies indicate that energy prices dropped after the liberalization of the energy market, but only for businesses. private consumers, in contrast, ended up spending relatively more on their energy bill. in california, consumer prices rose following the liberalization of the energy market, while the number of power outages increased substantially. according to some energy market experts, liberalization on its own does not guarantee lower consumer prices. if private suppliers retain the possibility to ration their production and as such cause shortages, they can influence the price of electricity in their favor anyway. hence, they retain certain monopolistic powers, despite the liberalization of the market. these developments have slowed down the trend towards liberalization in recent years, and even spurred calls for the re - regulation of some liberalized energy markets including : ( 1 ) the prevention of market abuse in case of a monopoly and ( 2 ) the establishment and regulation of structures to facilitate competition in potentially competitive sectors. furthermore, independent regulatory agencies were established to execute these tasks. as a monopoly service provider, aqualectra until now has not been subject to economic regulation as there is not a body which has responsibility for regulating competition, controlling prices and protecting consumers in the water and electricity supply industry. in the past, the department of economic affairs used to advice the government on the tariffs