the quran3, " o believers! be steadfast, strive to excel in steadfastness, remain firm on your belief and be mindful of allah, so you may be successful. " on this count, i commend the malaysian islamic finance industry for taking the leap forward more than half a decade ago - to embrace value - based intermediation ( vbi ). this strategic alignment with the maqasid shariah has enabled the industry to have a leg up while the rest of the sector is still at the exploratory stage in the ethical and sustainable journey. with the recent launch of the 3rd cohort of the vbi financing and investment impact assessment framework ( vbiaf ) 4 sectoral guides and the maqasid shariah scorecard ( mss ) in october, the industry should collectively work to intensify the implementation of vbi and measure its impact more effectively. moving forward, stronger implementation of vbi requires concerted efforts and holistic alignment across all key stakeholders. in particular, shareholder stewardship is vital to 2 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches ensure the transformative impacts of value - based finance are seen and felt by many. with louder tone from the top - shareholders have the power to drive positive changes across the entire ecosystem - aligning business practices with the best conduct - which can further strengthen governance and promote positive consumer outcomes. the islamic finance talent ecosystem must also evolve from treating shariah requirements as a compliance exercise to encapsulating the shariah values in its entirety a€ “ by demonstrating trustworthiness ; fairness ; transparency ; social responsibility ; and a commitment to justice and shared prosperity. ladies and gentlemen, the second key proposition is to advance innovation for value - based solutions. in adapting to the changing market needs, islamic finance must remain agile - by structuring sophisticated instruments, using the basic building blocks ; unbundling ; and repurposing different components of existing islamic financial instruments. the industry should actively explore the full range of shariah contracts and instruments to drive financial innovation to address real - world challenges. i believe that the future of value - based innovation is certainly bright. first, blended finance has great potential to expand access to finance for the underserved and unserved segments. this is particularly due to its ability, to mobilise social finance capital, such as zakat and waqf - combined with traditional financing. an example of blended

with a significant fall in its unemployment rate. today, french reforms are heading in the right direction, [ slide 5 ] in particular the tax credit for competitiveness and investment ( cice ) and the responsibility and solidarity pact ( rsp ) that enhance the competitive strength of the french economy. a policy of administrative simplification, the so - called ‘ simplification shock ’, and a new law to sustain economic growth and entrepreneurship ( ‘ loi macron ’ ), are also being conducted in order to rebuild business confidence. however, we are not there yet and a number of reforms need to be complemented. in particular, in the labour market : hopefully renewed progress will be made with the draft law under discussion in parliament. finally, in the euro area, fiscal policy is now more balanced since significant adjustment has already been achieved. structural efforts and a growth recovery have led to a reduction in deficits and to a stabilisation in the ratio of debt to gdp. this more balanced policy mix is an opportunity to engage in new ways of thinking and to strengthen the recovery via stronger economic coordination in europe. the room for manoeuvre in economic policy is highly heterogeneous across european countries, and each country should use its capacity to improve the overall situation [ slide 6 ]. european countries have done quite a lot on their own, but now we can and must do more to coordinate demandside policies and structural reforms at the european level. to do so, i would like to make two proposals. 4 / strengthen investment first, we need to improve investment financing [ slide 7 ]. our efforts should be put towards financing growth and innovation and towards finding the right mix between debt and equity financing solutions, while still preserving financial stability and consumer protection. in the eu, the european commission has launched several initiatives to serve these objectives, particularly the investment plan and the capital markets union. bis central bankers ’ speeches second, we need to focus on removing obstacles to investment, providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects and making smarter use of new and existing financial resources. the european fund for strategic investments ( efsi ) drives the investment plan for europe. it supports strategic investments in key areas such as infrastructure, education, research, innovation, as well as risk finance for small businesses. through the use of limited public guarantees, it aims to foster private investments totalling eur 315 billion in three years. for the first year, the plan managed to trigger around eur 76 billion of