Introduction

Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz (Dr. Zeti) is a Malaysia 7^th Governor and still currently a governor for Bank Negara Malaysia. She holding that title from May 2000 and a first woman got the title. 

Biography

Dr. Zeti was born in Johor Bahru, Johor. Her father is Professor Ungku Aziz, and mother Sharifah Azah Mohamed Alsagoff.  She received early education at Assunta High School, Petaling Jaya in 1958. In 1970, she received a Bachelor's degree in Economics from University Malaya. She subsequently continued her studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a PhD in monetary and international economics. As part of her PhD dissertation she carried out pioneering work on capital flows and its implications for monetary policy. She is married to Dr Taufik Ayman and has two children.

Career

She began her career as an economic analyst for the South-East Asia Central Bank Training & Research Center, from 1979 to 1984. She was then appointed Deputy Manager of the Economics Department at Bank Negara Malaysia.

She joined the Economics Department in Bank Negara Malaysia in 1985 and was appointed Secretary to the Board of Directors of the bank in 1987. In 1989, she was posted to the Bank Negara Malaysia London Representative Office as the Chief Representative. After returning to the Head Office in 1994, Dr. Zeti was appointed the Bank's Chief Economist and the Head of its Economics Department. In 1995, she was appointed Assistant Governor, responsible for economics, reserve management, foreign and money market operations and exchange control.

Additionally, she was Managing Director of Danaharta Nasional Bhd from 1998 to 2000, and was on the board of directors of Khazanah Nasional Bhd from 2004 to 2008.

On November 16 2008, she was selected as one of the members of a special task force at the United Nations to examine reforms of the global market system.

Dr. Zeti as a Leader

Dr. Zeti is the one and only woman in Asia who holds the portfolio as a central bank’s governor, and is also one of the very few women in the world appointed to the highly regarded position. She has been serving the Bank for more than 20 years.  In 2003, Euromoney named Dr Zeti as Central Bank Governor of the Year for her role in the reform of the exchange rate, the capital markets, and the banking industry. 3 years before that, she was made the list of ‘the most powerful women in the finance industry’ as was released by the international magazine, Global Finance.

Dr. Zeti was one of the key figures that were involved in the decision to introduce capital controls and the currency floating. A controversial implementation that raised the eye browses of financial critics and the likes. However, many years later, she achieved a status of a hero and returned the country into competitiveness faster than any other countries in the region. Apart from being a high flier in the company, Dr Zeti has also written numerous dissertations and publications on monetary, financial economics, Islamic finance, capital flows, macroeconomic, financial reform, restructuring and so on. 

Her achievements

While there are parallels between the Asian economic crisis 10 years ago and the current financial turmoil may hold some useful lessons for world governments as they steer through troubled times. To going forward, the world is likely to continue to be plagued by financial crisis. While the trigger factors for such financial crises may be different, for most, there was a general loss of confidence, disruptions in the financial intermediation process and a general downward spiral of asset prices.

As in the Asian financial crisis, the economic contraction was severe.  In the current financial crisis, the spillover effect on the economy has yet to be fully felt. The Asian crisis, however, ran its course within a short period of time. The policy focus during the Asian crisis was on restoring the functioning of the intermediation process to promote economic recovery. For most countries, growth resumed within 18 months of the start of the crisis.

The Policy

The important action that needs to be taken in managing a financial crisis seems to be already apparent, as evidenced by the series of policy announcements made by the respective governments, the multilateral agencies and the various international groupings. Dr. Zeti announced policy actions have included providing huge liquidity injections into the system, that removing the troubled assets from the portfolio of financial institutions, strengthening their capital position and providing depositors with protection. In addition, the implementation of monetary and fiscal stimulus has also promoted economic recovery.

As for her actions, Malaysia then can measures the implementation at the early stage of the crisis raised the prospects for restoring stability and the resumption of lending. Such early and pre-emptive action requires anticipation of the trajectory of the crisis. Reacting to developments or delayed action diminishes the effect of the measures to contain the deterioration. It will also raise the cost of the crisis.

While today economic crisis, Dr. Zeti said that “The effects of the fiscal stimulus and supportive monetary environment will put the country’s economy in a better position in the second half of the year”.  She said though the external economies were experiencing contraction, the domestic economy was still growing. The first quarter of this year was very much impacted by contractions in external economies which have taken a toll on country’s exports, she said. As for the effect on the global developments in first and second quarter of year have been surfaced. She believed that in the current environment our projection is more or less a flat growth because of the contractions of the external environment and it is being offset by domestic demand.  On non performing loans (NPLs), Zeti said the Malaysian domestic banking system was well-positioned to absorb any rise in NPLs. The NPLs are now at historical low of just over two percent. And therefore, even if they were to rise, the banks can absorb them. The declined have been seen to trend up to this point.

Conclusion

From the bottom, a woman always was underestimated when it comes to leadership.  However Dr. Zeti has proves that the statements are no longer an arguments that she always shown a woman also can be a great leader.  She’s seen as a good governor more that the previous Malaysia’s governors are. The crisis that now happen globally never bring her down, hence make her coming up with ideas that seen can saves Malaysia.

As a leader, she is also an analyst, that is, she’s industry forecasters who are well versed on the trends, opportunities and problems that her field might face. In any public exchange, she is ready to answer question on any challenges that might happen to her review.