platform and other use of internet technologies for money laundering activities are on the rise. new technologies are also being used to perpetrate crimes such as dealing in illegal drugs over the internet and e - crimes, including phishing and internet auction frauds ; 3. there are also instances on the use of dummies, or an international network of shell companies as well as other intermediaries to handle the transactions ; and 4. the use of electronic fund transfers as one of the preferred methods for the layering of criminal proceeds once they enter the legitimate financial system. there are cases where these proceeds are smuggled out of one country, deposited in another country or other countries, and then wired back to the country of origin. iii. strategic focus to strengthen the national aml / cft regime as the challenges to address the emerging trends intensify, it becomes imperative that the overarching objective upon which an aml / cft regime has been built remains intact and achievable. the key is to sustain the robustness of the aml / cft regime to effectively deter and detect money laundering and terrorism financing offences. thus the third and the last theme of my speech is on malaysia's strategic focus in strengthening the national aml / cft regime. against this backdrop, five key areas has been identified. first is to strengthen collaboration and cooperation among key stakeholders. foremost is to enhance the public - private sector partnership as synchronised actions deliver better result. the move to increase the resources for money laundering and terrorism financing investigations by the domestic law enforcement agencies, which currently is the emerging trend, needs to be supported with swift actions from the fiu and prompt response from reporting institutions. another is that, at the international level, malaysia will continue to enhance multilateral and bilateral relationships. i am happy to inform that we have recently concluded an mou with the national bank of cambodia, bringing the total number of mous signed to 18. we have and will continue to provide assistance to countries in the asia / pacific region. second is to provide greater focus in enhancing the competency and capacity of key stakeholders, i. e., the analysts, law enforcement officers and compliance officers. despite the unfavourable economic condition, human resources and capacity building remain as one of our top focus. we plan to roll out capacity building programmes for analysts and enforcement officers covering fundamental, intermediate and advance level training programmes. the certified financial investigators programme, or cfip, i.

labour and product markets. structural reforms in various regions of the world let me now turn to the issue of future challenges with respect to microeconomic policies and structural reforms in particular economic areas. i shall start with structural reforms in the euro area, and then move on to say a few words about structural reform in the eu neighbouring regions, the united states, latin america and, finally, east asia. euro area economic activity in the euro area remained subdued in the first half of 2003. however, there is increasing reason to expect that it will recover gradually in the second half of 2003 and strengthen further in 2004. although the outlook for price stability is favourable, having allowed interest rates to fall to historically low levels, monetary policy cannot by itself generate lasting and sustainable growth and employment in the euro area. part of the weakness in economic growth in the euro area may be linked to a lack of ambition in recent years in both fiscal and structural reforms to improve the conditions for investment and employment in the euro area. the euro area needs structural reforms which increase the flexibility of labour, financial and product markets and effectively increase potential output growth, job creation and investment. although the extent and implementation of labour market reforms have been uneven across countries, the efforts made in the 1990s resulted in positive progress in two areas : first, in fostering employment growth across most sectors, which rose to 1. 5 % per year on average between 1997 and 2001, and second, in helping groups, such as women, the young and old and the least educated, to enter the labour market. labour market reforms should now focus on reducing high structural unemployment and increasing participation and employment rates. indeed, it is important that, alongside social considerations, the countries of the euro area give more weight to economic efficiency within labour markets. capital market reforms can also play a major role in making the euro area economy more flexible. much has been achieved, not least due to the introduction of the euro, and the bulk of the financial services action plan has been implemented. however, the further integration of national capital markets towards a truly european financial market would be an important step towards safeguarding markets against country - specific shocks. finally, greater efforts must be made to remove existing barriers in product markets. since the early 1990s state enterprises have undergone extensive privatisation, the use of state aid has fallen and market entry barriers have been lowered, although not evenly across all countries or sectors. in addition, there are still significant barriers to the further removal of price pressures, and