Efforts by the Accounting & Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), Islamic  2  “The New Silk Road: Asia and the Middle East rediscover trade and investment opportunities”, Research Department, Kuwait China Investment Company (KCIC), January 2011. 3  Ibid. 4  “Economic growth moderates across Middle East”, IMF Survey, May 21, 2013. 5  “World Economic Outlook”, IMF, April 2013. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Development Bank and Malaysia’s International Shariah Research Academy (ISRA) in research and fostering dialogue between Shariah Scholars from various jurisdictions are also narrowing the differences in views on Shariah issues in finance. As work on all these fronts progress, this will encourage greater interest internationally to participate in cross border financing and investment activities. The prospects for cross-border Islamic finance are already very bright. We are beginning to see cross border sukuk issuance within Asia, as well as between Middle East and Asia. As early as 2010, Malaysia’s Khazanah issued a $ sukuk in Singapore, while Japan-based Nomura issued 2-year $ sukuk in Malaysia. Last year, taking advantage of favorable currency swap rates, Singapore listed companies Natural Resources and Golden Agri tapped the Malaysian Ringgit (MR) sukuk market. In the last two years, two GCC firms, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company and Kuwait-based Gulf Investment Corp issued MR sukuk in Malaysia. There is considerable scope to issue more such cross-border sukuk, especially to finance the large infrastructure needs in both Middle East and Asia.
Lim Hng Kiang: Boosting international linkages and cross-border opportunities Opening remarks by Mr Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry and Deputy Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the 4th World Islamic Banking Conference: Asia Summit 2013, Singapore, 4 June 2013. *  *  *  Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. And to all our foreign guests, a warm welcome to Singapore. Introduction I am honoured to be invited to deliver the opening address for the 4th WIBC Asia Summit. Since its inauguration, I am pleased to see that the Conference has grown in participation and stature, with attendance nearly doubled since 2010. Continued growth of Islamic Finance When this conference convened in Singapore this time last year, one key takeaway was that the Islamic Finance industry, being well-capitalised and tied to underlying real economic activities, was presented with unique opportunities to expand further in an era of deleveraging by global financial institutions and the demand for back-to-basic investment. The need for the industry to integrate itself with global finance and strike roots in key international financial centres was also emphasised. We have indeed seen continued strong growth in the Islamic finance industry over the past year.