focused on the interests of clients. well informed financial consumers the bank is mindful that while great emphasis has been placed on the responsibility of financial service providers and intermediaries to ensure that the products recommended to consumers are appropriate to their needs, consumers are ultimately accountable for their own financial decisions. our best efforts to improve the quality of and accessibility to financial advice would be incomplete without at the same time, equipping consumers with the knowledge, skills and tools to make informed financial decisions. these capabilities not only allow individuals to build, manage and preserve wealth, they are essential to help consumers protect themselves against poor market practices and to take appropriate actions when treated unfairly. therefore, enhancing financial capability among malaysians has been and will continue to be an important agenda of the bank. financial advisers have an important role in this effort given your unique vantage point as an objective adviser, and through the close relationships that are cultivated with your clients. we look to the industry to provide input and support to the bank ’ s ongoing work to develop financial capability programmes that are tailored to the different key life stages of individuals from their days as a student, when they enter the workforce, when they start and raise a family, and in retirement. conclusion in closing, let me congratulate the afa on its second annual conference and the progress that has been made in bringing the industry together under an organized platform to further advance and develop the industry. i come back to my opening comments and look forward to working with the association to deliver the objectives that were originally set out for the industry, that is to improve the quality of advice and enhance its role in supporting the broader financial management strategies of malaysian households and individuals to grow their savings, manage risk and meet their financial goals. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

of accounts receivable and goods in stocks of small firms in japan and also small relative to the outstanding balance in other advanced countries such as the united states. going forward, i expect this method to be utilized widely through active cooperation between financial institutions and firms. next i would like to introduce an attempt made mainly by regional financial institutions to send monozukuri or manufacturing instructors to small firms. “ competitiveness at worksites ”, or genbaryoku, of monozukuri proved effective in the process of rebuilding from the earthquake disaster. in order to boost the growth potential of japan ’ s economy by utilizing this strength, it is necessary to spread to other worksites the know - how of people who worked in the front - runner firms that lead the industry. also, it is important to pass on the advantages of genbaryoku to the next generation. with that in mind, some local governments and universities have been training as monozukuri instructors people in their 50 ’ s and 60 ’ s who have retired from manufacturing firms and sending those instructors to small firms to spread and pass on special techniques to others. in such a process, regional financial institutions play a major role. from the standpoint of small firms, some of them feel reluctant to accept instructors who have built up a long - term career in another firm. however, in cases bis central bankers ’ speeches where regional financial institutions match the right instructor and the right workplace using the trust between institutions and firms that they have been fostering every day, small firms tend to accept instructors much more easily. an example such as this has also been seen in shiga, kyoto ’ s neighboring prefecture. due to limited time, i have only touched upon two examples today. but i want to emphasize that, in either of the examples, not only industry, government, and academia but also financial institutions are collaborating and making efforts in their respective roles to boost the productivity and competitiveness of the region. i hope that such steady efforts, together with the accommodative financial environment, will support the enhancement of regions and industries, and consequently spread to japan ’ s economy as a whole. concluding remarks kyoto is a special place for me. i was born in tokyo, but during my childhood i often visited my uncle ’ s house in kamigamo, kyoto. he was chief librarian of the kyoto prefectural library at that time. the history and the culture that i saw and experienced at my visits have formed the basis of