marzunisham omar : risk and opportunity – managing risk for development welcoming remarks by mr marzunisham omar, assistant governor of the central bank of malaysia, at the wb - bnm seminar on the world development report 2014 “ risk and opportunity : managing risk for development ”, kuala lumpur, 29 april 2014. * * * it is my pleasure to welcome you to sasana kijang this morning to the seminar on the world development report 2014, with the theme “ risk and opportunity : managing risk for development ”. reading through the report, i ’ m struck by two observations : • first, in the past 50 years, middle - income countries have been in recession 14 to 16 per cent of the time and low income countries, a staggering 27 per cent of the time. • second, from 1970 to 2011, there were 147 banking crises in 116 countries. so, while the world has, in the last 50 years, made significant progress in terms of economic development, poverty eradication and overall standard of living, the above observation begs the question of whether the global economy is also more prone to crises, highlighting the fragility of the economic system that is currently in place. this reinforces the need to have a proper framework to identify and manage risks, towards achieving a common shared goal of sustaining long - term development. almost six years after the collapse of lehman brothers, the world economy is still coping with the aftermath of the global financial crisis, notably the worst financial crisis in the last 70 years. of relevance is that excessive risk - taking behaviours featured prominently as a key factor contributing to the crisis. in addition, what makes the global financial crisis different is the extent of the economic and financial inter - linkages within and across borders, which explains the far - reaching impact of the crisis. while the greater interconnectedness of economies and financial systems has brought about opportunities, it has also resulted in greater risks. the global financial crisis has resulted in the re - assessment of how policymakers view the achievement of macroeconomic and financial stability. there is a growing recognition that emerging risks to macroeconomic and financial stability have to be identified and managed in a more holistic and effective manner. as the economy and financial system grow in complexity, policymakers have to strengthen the understanding of the macroeconomic and financial inter - linkages in order to be able to effectively assess the implications of any potential risk on the economy. before the global financial crisis, the predominant view was that unfettered

zeti akhtar aziz : creating a sustainable pool of talent for malaysia speech by dr zeti akhtar aziz, governor of the central bank of malaysia ( bank negara malaysia ), at the kijang emas scholarship award ceremony, kuala lumpur, 30 april 2015. * * * in preparing for the future, a future that is going to be fundamentally different from the current environment, talent development has become more important than ever before. the environment before us is rapidly changing and is continuously becoming more interconnected, more complex and certainly more competitive. it is also becoming more uncertain and unstable. malaysia has, however over several decades, demonstrated time and again our ability to face the challenges arising from these transformative changes, supported by our resilience and strong foundations. human capital makes up a critical component of these foundations. developing the talent that we have and making greater investments in our talent pipeline will contribute to generating the development of our future leaders that will be able to effectively operate in this new environment. education and capacity building to generate the new talent with the right skills, mindsets and values, as well as effective talent development strategies and their implementation, have now become key priorities of the nation. the kijang emas scholarship award is an eminent scholarship award that is part of the bank ’ s commitment to creating a sustainable talent pool for the nation. the kijang emas scholarship is distinct from the kijang scholarship in that the recipients are given the freedom to pursue any field of study at top universities in any country of their choice. the bank also does not impose any bond on the recipients except that they return, contribute and partake in the development of our nation. to date, 44 high potential talent have been awarded the kijang emas scholarship. the recipients have graduated or are currently pursuing their studies in diverse fields of study including medicine, engineering, law, economics, dietetics, actuarial science, accounting, dentistry, biochemistry, genetics, architecture, psychology and geophysics in top universities around the world such as mit, university of pennsylvania and the university of cambridge. thus far, 11 kijang emas scholars have completed their undergraduate studies and have returned to serve the nation, while another seven scholars are expected to complete their studies in the next six months. for the 2015 kijang emas scholarship, we received a total of 212 applications from top spm students scoring straight a + for their 2014 spm. from this, the bank