zeti akhtar aziz : advancing women ’ s leadership in public life speech by dr zeti akhtar aziz, governor of the central bank of malaysia, at the women in leadership forum “ power sharing in the public sector ”, kuala lumpur, 22 february 2011. * * * introduction in this twenty - first century, it is human capital rather than physical capital that will define performance and progress. women represent half of the world population and therefore half the potential resource that can drive such performance. this is reinforced by the more recent trend that increasingly, the majority of those with college education are women. increasingly therefore, this group represents a more significant resource potential that can rise to leadership positions. in emerging economies, where such high powered talent is scarce, gender has not been of an issue. women have risen to leadership positions based on their merits and capabilities. women in malaysia have certainly made significant strides in their participation in all segments of the malaysian economy and have demonstrated their ability to lead and to succeed in both the public and private sectors. it is my honour to be here today to speak at this women in leadership forum on the topic on “ advancing women ’ s leadership in public life : power sharing in the public sector ”. in asia, in particular, women have risen to key positions and have been given the opportunity to contribute to the nation ’ s progress and development. in an age of greater demands for performance and in an environment of increased scrutiny and transparency, the transition to such leadership positions has not been based on gender. indeed, it is based on the capability as administrators, policy makers and thought leaders. power sharing is therefore the shared power to contribute to the nation rather than on the power that is wielded. my presentation today will therefore start on the role of the public sector and its accountabilities before discussing women and leadership in the public sector, its challenges and some strategies for success. accountabilities of the public sector the role and accountabilities of the public sector differs markedly from the private sector. unlike in the private sector, financial measures are generally not the indicator of the performance of agencies in the public sector. in addition, actions taken by the public sector have far reaching implications on the economic well being of the public at large and entire spectrum of businesses. such actions may even have implications on other countries given the greater international interdependence that prevails in the current environment. the responsibility and accountability is therefore immense. history has shown that

required, however, with regard to the time horizon over which this is realized. " 8 that might involve extending the usual horizon for achieving the inflation target in response to an asset - price shock, in return for greater financial, economic, and inflation stability over a somewhat longer horizon. the challenge would lie in making such judgment calls, calls that become even more difficult for an open economy such as ours when the asset - price shock comes from abroad. here, our flexible exchange rate would be helpful, by performing its usual role as an important shock absorber. m. carney, " some considerations on using monetary policy to stabilize economic activity " ( presentation to a symposium sponsored by the federal reserve bank of kansas city, jackson hole, wyoming, 22 august 2009 ) : p. 3. see " renewal of the inflation control target, background information, " op. cit., p. 9. how central banks should respond to asset prices is receiving considerable attention in light of the experience of the past two years. 9 more discussion and debate are called for, drawing on those experiences and on what research can tell us. 10 issues of broader public policy and the economy let me now turn to public policy more broadly, and to the economy. there are two elements relating to public policy that i wish to touch on briefly, since both have taken on heightened importance as a result of the global financial crisis. the first is the importance of policies that promote flexibility and an innovative business environment. as we have often seen, most recently during the global financial crisis, many adverse shocks to the canadian economy come from abroad. we must be able to adapt and adjust in response to these developments. sound macroeconomic and financial policies are very important, but we also need policies that enable the efficient shifting of resources from one sector to another and that provide incentives for businesses to be nimble in developing new products and markets as trends change in global demand. the second element relates to the importance of a rotation of global demand to address global current account imbalances. fundamentally, this means that, over the coming years, more u. s. economic growth must come from net exports, and more chinese growth must come from domestic demand within china. the united states will remain canada's major trading partner, but we increasingly need to consider other markets outside north america as destinations for canadian products. here, i'm referring not only to china, and not only to commodities. canada has a comparative advantage in many other areas – for