of islamic securities further diversifies the asset classes and the investment alternatives available to investors, expanding the breadth and depth of the islamic financial market and enhancing its liquidity. the comprehensive shariah and legal infrastructure that has been put in place has also increased the level of confidence in conducting islamic financial transactions. in addition, the conducive tax regime which accords neutrality in treatment between islamic and conventional financial products sets the stage for greater innovation to take place to support the progressive development of the islamic financial services industry going forward. with this strengthened islamic financial infrastructure now being firmly achieved in the first phase of the financial sector masterplan, the islamic financial services industry is poised to tap new growth opportunities and maximize the full potential of islamic banking and finance. the entry of commerce tijari bank berhad into the islamic financial services industry at this juncture is indeed timely. the challenge that lies ahead calls for strategic positioning to maximise the potential that a universal islamic banking licence accords in tapping new growth areas. while islamic retail, corporate and investment banking product offerings have grown in sophistication, financial activities such as private equity investments, real estate investments, private wealth and fund management are now rapidly gaining prominence. there is therefore a need to allocate adequate resources to build distinct capabilities in these newly emerging areas. the move into these strategic niche markets would also increase the diversity of new asset classes for islamic investment. this would not only contribute to further enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the financial intermediation process in the islamic financial system but also enhance malaysia ’ s potential as an attractive international hub for islamic finance. in addition to tapping the vast growth opportunities that reside within the domestic environment, the enhanced economic and financial linkages between malaysia and the rest of the world has also opened up the potential for new opportunities by venturing abroad and thereby strengthen the global integration process. on this note, it is my pleasure to congratulate the commerce group on this occasion of the official launch of commerce tijari bank berhad. significant potential exists for commerce tijari bank berhad to achieve a quantum leap by leveraging on the integrated financial services and operating infrastructure of the commerce group. i wish commerce tijari bank berhad every success in this endeavour and i look forward to its contribution to the further development of the islamic financial services industry in malaysia. ladies and gentlemen, dengan lafaz bismillahirrahmanirrahim, “ commerce tijari bank

##est pace of global trade growth since the global financial crisis. while china is also contending with moderation in growth during its economic transition, it continued to become the largest contributor to global growth. the gravity centre of global growth has for now, shifted to emerging economies, particularly asia. china ’ s slowdown is not all negative – as china ’ s economic transformation, through various efforts to restructure its economy and internationalise its markets, are important towards a more sustainable path of development. furthermore, a 6. 7 % growth rate is an economic performance many would aspire to. continued rmb developments as part of internationalisation effort china ’ s progressive liberalisation and opening up of its financial markets as well as the growing offshore renminbi market has led to a rapidly growing share of their global bond and stock markets. the trend behind the internationalisation of renminbi is underpinned by the greater importance of china in international trade, investment and financial linkages and this presents opportunities for china ’ s key partners, including malaysia. the rise of renminbi since 2009 coincided with china ’ s rise to become the world ’ s largest trading nation since 2013, with total trade of us $ 3. 96 trillion in 2015. the early regulatory and government incentives to promote the use of renminbi proved important towards achieving this. multinational companies ( mncs ), 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches particularly those with significant operations in china, have followed with steps to operationalise the use of renminbi in their invoices and treasury pooling system across subsidiaries. renminbi has now become the second most used global currency for trade finance, and the latest swift data showed that renminbi is now ranked fifth as payment currency, compared to 17th place five years ago. in the investment sphere, foreign investors now have multiple channels in investing into china ’ s market. apart from the qualified foreign institutional investors ( qfii ) program, china has granted wider access to the china interbank bond market ( cibm ), expanded the renminbi qfii ( rqfii ) program, and introduced the hong kong - shanghai stock connect ( as well as the incoming hong kong - shenzhen stock connect ) and hong kong - china mutual fund recognition ( mfr ) scheme. since 2015, eight countries including malaysia had been granted with rqfii quotas ; bringing the total available quotas to more than rmb1. 4 trillion. in addition, clearing banks across nine