Going forward, the financing requirements for economic development are envisaged to be massive, particularly for emerging and developing economies in the Asian and Middle Eastern regions that are seeking huge amounts of capital to fund new infrastructure and to support economic development. Given the sheer size of these projects, equity and government budgets cannot be the only source of financing for this next phase of economic growth and industrialisation in our regions. The sukuk market has become a potentially important new source of funding for such long term projects. In the recent decade, a total of $ billion of infrastructure sukuk has been issued by more than 10 different countries. In Asia, it is estimated that a funding of $ trillion is required until 2020 for infrastructure projects, while the funding requirements in the Middle East are estimated to be $ trillion over the same period. Developing economies in Africa have also already begun its entry into  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  the sukuk market for such infrastructure financing with some having put in place the legal groundwork for such sukuk issuances. However, low sovereign ratings have limited the ability of certain high-growth developing countries to source such funding, despite being rich in natural resources. Countries that are rich in natural resources may however, pledge these resources for such issuance. Funding may thus be secured arising from the securitisation of such assets.
However, this was more than offset by increases in Government deposits with MAS and our borrowings from the money market, again due to the diversification of our money market instruments from mainly swaps to include money market borrowings and repos. Income & expenditure statement For the financial year ended 31 March 2000, MAS made profits of $ billion (net of provisions), a decrease of 38% or $ billion compared with the previous year. The lower return was due mainly to translation losses, as the Singapore dollar strengthened against major foreign currencies such as the US dollar and euro during the financial year. The organisation To support MAS’ expanded roles and functions in building a central bank of excellence, we have taken steps to strengthen our human resources. Over the last two years, we have increased our headcount by 30%. Of these, a substantial number were early- and mid-career officers from a wide range of professional and academic backgrounds. The increase in mid-career employees has encouraged greater diversity in perspectives and views within the organisation as we address the increasingly complex issues in monetary policy and financial sector supervision and development. MAS will continue to build up our internal capabilities and human resources, and actively consult the industry participants in our efforts to meet the challenges in the coming year. 3  BIS Review 62/2000