important channel for greater connectivity among emerging economies to not only enhance trade and investment flows but also international financial flows between nations and in so doing contribute towards an optimum allocation of resources across borders. these combined efforts will contribute to the stability of the international financial system and global economic prosperity.

zeti akhtar aziz : thoughts and visions on islamic finance welcoming remarks by dr zeti akhtar aziz, governor of the central bank of malaysia, at the malaysia showcase dinner, manama, 3 may 2010. * * * i have the distinct honour today to welcome distinguished guests to the malaysia showcase dinner, organized in conjunction with the 7th islamic financial services board summit. let me first of all express our appreciation to h. e. tun dr. mahathir mohamad for accepting our invitation to speak at this event, sharing his thoughts and vision on islamic finance moving forward. tun mahathir needs no introduction. during his twenty two years of leadership, malaysia experienced modernization and economic prosperity. malaysia is today a forward looking nation that continues to sustain its economic performance. during the recent unprecedented international financial and economic crisis in 2008 and 2009, the asian region has demonstrated remarkable resilience. the asian economies have strong fundamentals with low public debt levels, providing flexibility to the governments in the region to implement large fiscal stimulus. in addition, strong and well capitalized financial institutions prevented disruption to credit flows to the private sector. in addition, the household and the corporate sectors in asia are not over leveraged, thus are in a better position to sustain consumption and business activity. asia is also not confronted by widespread unemployment. malaysia is very much part of this strong and vibrant region. for malaysia, the economic recovery is expected to continue to gain further strength in 2010. in this environment, the focus of our policies has shifted towards building the foundations to transition into a high value - added, high income economy. the recently announced new economic model is intended to further accelerate malaysia ’ s development to realize these goals by 2020. the broad thrust of the strategies is to provide an enabling environment that will generate an economy that is characterised by high productivity, efficiency and innovation with the private sector that is the main driver of growth. given malaysia ’ s proven record of economic flexibility for more than five decades, the strategy is also to transition to new areas of comparative advantage to sustain our growth momentum. as a central bank, our attention has focused on ensuring the successful transformation of the malaysian financial system that will facilitate our national economic development agenda. an important aspect of this transformation is the advancement of islamic finance as an integral part of the overall financial system in malaysia that is fast becoming an international islamic financial centre. islamic finance has continued to demonstrate its resilience against the background of the current challenging international financial environment.