markets. in addition, rising inflationary pressures in the global economy arising from high energy, commodity and food prices has resulted in the erosion of the purchasing power. despite a slower performance in the external sector the continued expansion of the asian economies is expected to be sustained. growth is predominantly supported by strong domestic demand and the increased intra - regional trade and investment activities. a more recent phenomenon is the increased mobility of labour in the region. increasingly, talent from our region have ventured beyond domestic borders. this trend is not limited to our immediate borders but also to more distant emerging and developed economies. again, we are seeing the two - way flow of talent for the different areas of professional expertise and the workforce leading to an increasingly diversified background of employment in different parts of the world. malaysian professionals can be found in every continent in wide ranging areas of employment. let me turn to the participation of women in the economy. about half of the malaysian population are women and they account for about 47 % of the workforce. the representation of women at the professional, managerial and technical levels has increased from less than 30 % in 1990 to about 40 % currently. such progress has been achieved given the educational opportunities that have been made available to women. literacy rates among women is about 90 % due to the countries comprehensive and inclusive education system. female primary and secondary students account for half of total enrolment, while at the public universities, female students account for 55 % of the total enrolment. it is this educational foundation which has accorded equality to women in malaysia. it has enabled women from all walks of life and backgrounds to contribute and participate fully in malaysia's economic prosperity. women in malaysia have also participated significantly in the small and medium enterprise sector of the economy. a significant number of women run family businesses makes up a large part of this sector. another area in which there is significant participation of women is the services sector which has now become one of the most important sources of growth for the malaysian economy projected to expand by 7. 7 % in 2008. ninety percent of womenowned smes in malaysia are in fact in the services sector. some of these activities are also developing in the informal sector. as, the formal economy in malaysia continues to prosper, there is significant scope to integrate the informal sectors of our economy with the formal sector. deliberate actions to integrate the informal economy into the formal economy will give this segment of society increased opportunities. as part of the efforts to promote greater engagement of women in

stephen s poloz : big issues ahead - the bank of canada ’ s 2020 vision remarks by mr stephen s poloz, governor of the bank of canada, to the empire club of canada, toronto, ontario, 12 december 2019. * * * introduction it has become a tradition for me to give a speech at the end of the year about the major issues affecting the canadian economy. i will only get to say this once, so i hope you will permit me … today, i want to focus on the bank ’ s 2020 vision. i want to walk you through some of the major forces acting on the economy and indicate what the bank will be doing about them. i touched on some of these issues back in september at the changing fortunes round table at spruce meadows, in calgary. since then, i ’ ve been working to formalize those ideas in a paper, which the bank is publishing today. in stepping back from the many short - term issues we have on our plate, i can avoid covering the same ground as in last week ’ s speech by deputy governor tim lane. tim discussed the considerations behind our latest interest rate announcement and offered an excellent historical analysis to put it all in context. big issues ahead the basic story of the global economy since the 2008 global financial crisis has been one of disappointing economic growth — serial disappointment, we came to call it. yes, it proved very difficult to recover from the great recession that followed the crisis. but other long - term, structural factors have also been at work. two basic factors drive trend economic growth : population growth and productivity growth. global population growth peaked in the mid - 1960s and has been slowing ever since. this puts a natural brake on global economic growth. and recent productivity gains have not been large enough to offset the impact of this demographic slowdown. there is of course potential for higher productivity growth in the future. i am referring to what has been called the fourth industrial revolution — the increasing use of artificial intelligence ( ai ), machine learning and big data throughout our economy. however, judging from past experience, these productivity gains could be slow to arrive. computers went into widespread use during the 1980s, but a surge in productivity growth did not emerge until the period from 1995 to 2005. i delivered a paper about this a few weeks ago at a conference hosted by the federal reserve bank of san francisco. besides, the near - term risks around productivity growth are tilted to the downside. this is because trade conflicts, and the emergence of