zamani abdul ghani : malaysia – seizing the opportunity to evolve opening remarks by mr zamani abdul ghani, deputy governor of the central bank of malaysia, at the seminar on financing for overseas project, kuala lumpur, 14 january 2010. * * * i am pleased to be invited today to officiate this seminar on financing for overseas project. on behalf of bank negara malaysia, i wish to thank and congratulate the exim bank, the icd and the cidb for their efforts in organizing this important and invaluable seminar. the continuous collaboration among malaysian private and public related organizations with the idb and its related organizations demonstrate the solidarity of the muslim ummah and the community at large towards achieving a strong and sustainable economic development. this also reflects the growing importance of cross border trade and investment among the oic member countries. we, at bank negara malaysia, are pleased to note that over 200 participants from more than 100 companies in malaysia are participating in this seminar. today ’ s seminar which brings together participants in the related industries, not only provide information on the business opportunities abroad, but also serves as an excellent platform to establish new networking links as well as sharing of innovative ideas and invaluable experiences. malaysia has always accorded and will continue to accord a high priority on enhancing collaboration with the oic member countries towards fostering intra - oic trade and investment. realizing the large business opportunities in the oic countries, malaysia entered into an mou with the idb in 2004. this mou sets a framework of cooperation among oic member countries in key economic activities, with the objective of enhancing the opportunities for economic growth and development. today ’ s seminar is indeed a testimony to the continued efforts by both the idb and malaysia in enhancing the cooperation and deepening of business relationship. as all of us are aware, infrastructure development is a critical component to unlock potential economic activities, thus supporting sustainable economic growth of a nation. malaysia has placed great emphasis on infrastructure development as part of its economic transformation, diversifying from agriculture to manufacturing and, in more recent years, in the services sector as well. over the last ten years, the government of malaysia has allocated a total of nearly rm100 billion for infrastructure development mainly in transport, energy and public utilities. the malaysian government has also encouraged the participation of the private sector in the development of infrastructure through privatization and the public - private partnership ( ppp ) policies. on the global front, the estimated value

mccarthy, richard peach, paolo pesenti and joseph tracy assisted in preparing these remarks. bis central bankers ’ speeches credit availability should support the demand for new housing. household credit worthiness is improving as the scars of the financial crisis heal, and underwriting standards may be relaxed somewhat in response to the excellent performance of recent mortgage vintages. fourth, household finances generally are in good shape with debt service burdens at historically low levels. nonetheless, household borrowing has been rising only very slowly, and the personal saving rate is somewhat elevated relative to what one would expect given the level of household net worth relative to income. this suggests that if households become more confident about their finances, consumer spending should grow at least as fast as income growth over the remainder of the year. but, i can ’ t be completely confident about this forecast. after all, several times during this expansion we have been fooled by sharp rises in the growth rate that appeared to presage a sustained pickup, but that subsequently proved fleeting. moreover, faster consumption growth is not a given. it will depend, in part, on the pace of employment and wage growth. a downside risk is that wage growth remains subdued, which would undercut consumer spending. and, the trade sector looks likely to remain a drag on growth over the remainder of the year. although the dollar has depreciated slightly on a broad trade - weighted basis recently, it still is more than 10 percent higher than it was a year ago. despite the sharp slowdown in growth evident during the first half of the year, we have seen continued job gains and further falls in unemployment so far this year. consequently, we still seem to be making progress toward our objective of maximum employment in a context of price stability. today ’ s payroll and household employment reports indicate that this progress continued into may. even with a weak month in march, job gains this year have been averaging almost 220, 000 per month. the gain in may was even stronger at 280, 000 and was widespread across industries. although the 12 - month change in average hourly earnings is still low at 2. 3 percent, it is a bit higher than we have seen in recent years. at the same time, there is still some ways to go. the unemployment rate has changed little in the past four months at about 5½ percent, with the levels of part - time workers for economic reasons, and longduration unemployed, remaining elevated. this combination of slow output growth and continued job gains