bank since 2005 with the establishment of bnmlink at the bank ’ s six offices ; the bank ’ s call center, bnmtelelink ; as well as bnmlink mobile counter services in semi - urban areas to provide access of financial information and consumer redress mechanisms. the introduction of mobilelink also provides a platform for enhancing financial literacy and financial capability of consumers to make well informed and responsible financial decisions and thus participate meaningfully and effectively in the financial system. akhir kata, saya ingin merakamkan penghargaan kepada semua hadirin sekalian yang memberi sokongan kepada inisiatif “ mobilelink ” ini. kami berharap inisiatif ini akan dapat merealisasikan usaha bank dalam mencapai rangkuman kewangan yang menyeluruh. bagi mencapai objektif ini, kerjasama pihak yang hadir pada hari ini dengan bank negara malaysia adalah dialu - alukan bagi memastikan usaha yang lebih bersepadu dan berkesan dapat digembleng bersama. bis central bankers ’ speeches

our overall level of economic competitiveness, if we are to achieve sustainable growth over the long term. returning to the economic outlook, the good news is that we are seeing more sustained growth around the world and that is already beginning to benefit malaysia and creating more balanced growth of the malaysian economy. now what are the potential clouds over this rather sunny outlook? there are several, but in the interest of time, i will just mention five. the first of this is the slow recovery of investment in the aes after the crisis. it has been noted that this recovery, unlike recoveries from past recessions, has been accompanied by rather lackluster investment. this is despite the fact that companies are sitting on large piles of cash. what have companies been using those cash piles for? well, either they have been returning that cash in bucket - fulls to shareholders or using it to support their share prices through share buy - backs. it was reported in yesterday ’ s financial times that during the first three months of this year alone, the s & p 500 companies in the us spent a record us $ 241 billion to repurchase shares and pay cash dividends. while this may help to keep share prices high, they do not create new sources of growth. meanwhile, capital spending by the s & p 500 companies has grown by an average of just 3. 6 percent per year over the last five years. ultimately, the quantity and quality of investment will determine the quality of growth now and well into the future. the second issue facing these economies is that despite the drop in unemployment, productivity growth has remained weak. the way we understand the recovery process, when demand picks up, companies will first try to meet it using its existing workers. productivity increases. however, as demand continues to grow, the increase in productivity of existing workers will be insufficient and companies have to hire new workers to increase production. so employment increases. therefore, an increase in productivity is accompanied by an increase in employment. we have not witnessed that phenomenon this time. in the us, the unemployment rate has fallen from its peak of 9. 8 % to 6. 3 % in may 2014 but productivity was only growing 1 %, less than half of what it was in the years prior to the crisis. bis central bankers ’ speeches there are a number of possibilities as to what is going on : • in the uk and us, it has been noted that the number of business start - ups has increased significantly in the post - crisis