The Islamic corporate bonds stands at RM121 billion, which constituted 55 percent of the total corporate bond market in Malaysia. More recently, a total of 26 new corporate sukuk issues with an aggregate value of about RM23 billion were announced in the first half of 2006, representing 71 percent of the Malaysian domestic market's rated corporate bond issues for that period. The operating environment of Islamic finance in Malaysia has also evolved dramatically. The product range has now expanded into broad array of innovative instruments using contracts beyond murabahah or Bai Bithaman Ajil (BBA). In past few years, several new Islamic financial products were introduced which included residential mortgage backed securities, commodity based financing, as well as investment and equity linked product based on musyarakah, mudarabah and ijarah. Recent issuance of Khazanah's exchangeable sukuk is based on musyarakah contract. Malaysia has strong potential to be the centre for sukuk origination as over 60 per cent (USD32 billion) of the outstanding sukuk issuance globally was originated from Malaysia. We have also seen that multi-lateral agencies have begun to tap the Malaysian market and our recent move to liberalise foreign currency denominated financial instruments to be issued out of Malaysia provides a strong catalyst in facilitating the international sukuk market. I would like to urge the industry players to take this opportunity and establish strategic alliance and form syndicates to market these products particularly in view of the growing infrastructure and construction projects being undertaken in the Middle East.
Mohd Razif bin Abd Kadir: Brief overview of Islamic banking and finance Speech by Mr Mohd Razif bin Abd Kadir, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the Official Launch of Kuala Lumpur International Islamic Finance Expo 2006, Kuala Lumpur, 24 November 2006. *  *  *  It is indeed an honour to be here this morning at the launching of the Kuala Lumpur International Islamic Finance Expo 2006, organized by the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM). It was exactly five years ago that all of us witnessed the launching of the first Islamic Banking and Takaful Week by the then Deputy Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. And now, after those years, Alhamdulillah, we are pleased with the positive impact of the comprehensive awareness campaign in the year 2001 as it has paved the way to subsequent nationwide annual campaigns on financial awareness in Islamic banking and finance. In this regard, I wish to congratulate all financial institutions involved for providing their unwavering support in this virtuous endeavour. Before I proceed, allow me to take this opportunity to welcome our exhibitors, both local and foreign, who will be participating in the Kuala Lumpur International Islamic Finance Expo 2006. We believe that your participation will benefit the patrons to this expo.