It has helped entrench Hong Kong as a testing ground and pilot market for China’s continuing financial reform and liberalisation. There is clearly immense scope for us to leverage on our key strengths as a close business partner, a capital formation centre and a financial intermediary for the Mainland economy in the development of Islamic finance. There are opportunities for us to extend our reach to potential Islamic investors and financiers in the Middle East and Asia. The addition of Islamic finance as a new asset class in our financial system will add value to Hong Kong as a thriving financial centre and a leading financial services hub in Asia. As a major financial centre, Hong Kong – with its flexible and innovative market participants and its responsive government – has always stood ready to adapt to and embrace new ideas. Even if the current financial environment appears unfavourable to the development of Islamic finance in the short term, this is, at worst, a temporary setback as future prospects remain promising. We at least do not intend to be put off by temporary difficulties from our goal of making Hong Kong an Islamic financial hub. Indeed we believe that this is a good time to do the groundwork of installing the necessary legal, taxation and market infrastructure. 4  Source: World Federation of Exchanges.
BIS Review 146/2008  3  To name just a few developments in the past 12 months: a new Dow Jones Islamic Market Index was launched to track China-related equities listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; Islamic mutual funds were introduced by a local bank and an asset management company featuring China-related equity investments through the stock market platform in Hong Kong; and an exchangeable sukuk linked to the shares of a Mainland company listed in Hong Kong was issued in March, enabling investors to gain exposure to China’s growth story. The response so far has been highly encouraging: for example, the sukuk was 10 times oversubscribed. Likewise, positive progress is achieved in the development of Islamic banking in Hong Kong. Following the first Islamic banking window introduced three months ago, I’m glad to witness yet another market player who is set to launch its Islamic banking window in Hong Kong at this auspicious occasion today. The increasing number of banks taking part in Islamic banking activities will add further momentum to the development of an Islamic capital market in Hong Kong by providing an important tool for funding and liquidity management. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority will continue to give full support to the HKSAR government in its initiative to develop Islamic finance in Hong Kong by acting as a market enabler and infrastructure provider. The HKMA has taken important steps and devoted considerable resources to promote the industry in Hong Kong.