wira haji amiruddin bin haji hamzah, deputy minister of finance, for gracing this special event. yang berhormat datuk zakaria bin mohd. edris, member of parliament for libaran, dr. firas raad, country manager for malaysia, the world bank group, ms. irina astrakhan, practice manager, finance, competitiveness, and innovation global practice, the world bank group, i would like to begin my remarks with two stories recounted to me by my project team, to remind us why the work that we have been doing for the past four years under the banner of project greenback, is important and meaningful. first, let me share a simple story that tells us about the true reality behind migration. this was during one of the events in johor bahru. the team visited a petroleum refinery complex 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches in pengerang. it was towards the end of the event ; it had been a long day and all they could think of was going back to be in the comfort of their own accommodation. this was when they noticed a number of migrant workers of various nationalities, noticeably tired from many hours of working – they were using their mobile phones ; engaged in highly animated video conversation with their families back home. some of these workers had not seen their family for years ; some were fathers who left for malaysia before their children were born – and the closest that they can get to see their families was through the small screens of their mobile phones. listening to this story, i was reminded to a quote by the former secretary general of the united nations, ban ki - moon on migration. he said “ migration is an expression of the human aspiration for dignity, safety and a better future. it is part of the social fabric, part of our very make - up as a human family. ” indeed, the single most important reason why these workers travelled thousands of kilometers away, was to seek for opportunities to secure a better future for themselves and their families ; and the simplest form of these opportunities is to earn more money. this brings me to my second story ; on remittances. from our engagement sessions, it was not uncommon for us to hear about stories of anger, resentment and frustration from the migrant workers about the difficulties they had to go through in remitting money to their families. the workers whom we approached in sapong estate for example, told us that they only had two options

fraziali ismail : closing ceremony of the project greenback 2. 0 kota kinabalu welcoming remarks by mr fraziali ismail, assistant governor of the central bank of malaysia ( bank negara malaysia ), at the closing ceremony of the project greenback 2. 0 kota kinabalu, kuala lumpur, 14 february 2020. * * * before i begin, i would like to convey my deepest condolences to the family members and friends of those who were involved in the boat crash incident near pulau tanjung aru, yesterday. let us pray for the safety of the victims as well as the search and rescue team. ladies and gentlemen, after we concluded project greenback in johor bahru more than two years ago, bank negara malaysia together with the world bank sat down to choose the second “ remittance champion city ”. among others, we considered ipoh, butterworth and kota kinabalu. we discussed long and hard, and weighed our options. our assessment suggested that ipoh and butterworth would have presented us with a rather similar case study to johor bahru. this is in view of the similar profile of the target groups who are largely made up of urban migrants, therefore exhibiting similar remittance behaviors. the odd for success would have been easier and kinder to us. but our intention has never been about replicating our experience in johor bahru. kota kinabalu offers a much more exciting proposition. this is despite our full cognisance of the challenges ahead of us, such as geographical barriers and connectivity issue. the more we thought about it, the more we were adamant to take this ‘ road less travelled ’, premised on a very clear objective which was to test how digitalisation and technology could be leveraged as a driver for inclusive financial services. our work under project greenback 2. 0 were not limited to the city of kota kinabalu alone. we covered keningau, inanam, tenom, kunak, tawau. some of these areas are remote, and admittedly, only a few of these i have visited myself. our work also brings us to this beautiful city of sandakan, where we gather this evening. it is my great pleasure to extend a warm welcome to all of you to the closing ceremony of the project greenback 2. 0 kota kinabalu. our utmost appreciation goes to our guest of honor, yang berhormat dato ’