Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Opportunities and collaboration in Islamic finance Address by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the MalaysiaUK Islamic Finance Forum, Kuala Lumpur, 8 July 2009. *  *  *  It is my pleasure to be here today to address the Malaysia-United Kingdom Islamic Finance Forum organised in collaboration with the Commonwealth Business Council. Allow me to take this opportunity to welcome The Right Honorouble Lord Mayor and distinguished guests from the United Kingdom today that are joining this dialogue with the Malaysian financial community to discuss the opportunities and areas of collaboration in Islamic finance – an important potential avenue for strengthening financial and economic linkages not only between our economies but with other parts of the world. A global shift is currently taking place in the international environment that is dramatically altering the configuration of the global economy. It is resulting in an increasingly multi-polar world. In this new phase of globalisation, the concentration of economic power will become more dispersed. Strengthening strategic economic and financial linkages across jurisdictions will become a key feature in this environment. It is very much Malaysia's intention to be part of this new future as we consciously build our capacity to enhance our international economic and financial linkages. Building effective partnership between UK and Malaysia The United Kingdom and Malaysia has one of the oldest relationships. This relationship has been dynamic, evolving in the rapidly changing international environment.
The strong and close bond has continued to evolve in the areas of trade, investment, education and finance. While the bilateral trade in goods between the United Kingdom and Malaysia only accounts for 1.4% of our total trade, Malaysia's bilateral trade in services with Britain accounts for 6.3% of our trade in services in 2008. While the balance of trade is in our favour, the balance in the services account is in the favour of the United Kingdom amounting to RM2.3 billion. In the area of mobility of people between our two countries, there continues to be a significant two-way flow relating to employment, education and tourism. Tourists from Britain represent the largest group of visitors from the European market. In the area of education, there are a great number of Malaysian students studying in the United Kingdom. This has been reinforced by the twinning programmes. In addition, British education for Malaysians has been strengthened by the branch campuses in Malaysia. More recently, the relationship building has extended into the area of Islamic finance. This relationship was cemented with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the UK Trade and Investment and Bank Negara Malaysia. The early development of Islamic finance was very much domestic-centric. This recent decade has seen the internationalization of Islamic finance. This has increased the potential for strategic partnerships between international financial centres that will bring with it mutually reinforcing benefits.