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

and the terrorist attacks - with their inevitable effect on business and consumer confidence at least in the short term - could not have come at a worse time. we can't, as i say, do anything directly ourselves to reduce the negative impact on the economy of these exogeneous shocks. what we can do is to try to compensate for them by encouraging the growth of domestic demand, and in particular consumer spending. and that in effect is what we have been trying to do through six cuts in interest rates so far this year, which have brought the mortgage rate, for example, to its lowest level for years. in the year to june final domestic demand grew by 3½ % ; but a fall in external demand helped to reduce the growth of total output to just over 2¼ %. overall uk manufacturing output in particular fell by 2 % in the year to august, and while that is substantially less than the equivalent fall in japan ( of over 11 % ) and in the us ( of 5½ % ), that's cold comfort to british industry. the imbalance within the economy which these figures reflect - notably the continuing imbalance between the internationally - exposed companies and sectors, which are having a really rough time, and the domestically - orientated sectors which are doing much better - is certainly not ideal. the continuing imbalance is not without risks. on the one side, we may find it increasingly difficult to offset the negative impact of the global slowdown in the face of increasing domestic private sector debt ; and if the slowdown in the uk spreads beyond manufacturing to the services sectors it may cause unemployment to rise which in turn could slow the growth of consumer spending. but, on the other side, we may find it difficult to moderate the growth of domestic demand when the international environment improves. there is no doubt that if we could simply redraw the map, we would opt for stronger external demand and weaker consumption growth. that would represent a more sustainable balance within our economy. sadly that is a choice that we are not immediately free to make. doing what we can to encourage domestic demand growth to compensate for the global economic weakness is certainly preferable to an unnecessary slowdown in the economy as a whole. and that is the path we must for the time being continue to pursue. so what then are the prospects? before the 11th of september the chances were that the us economy - which is of course key to the whole global outlook - was close to the bottom of its cyclical slow