Given your vast experience in the area of takaful, both domestically and globally, we believe that the industry players will provide valuable contribution towards the formulation of the IFSB international takaful standards. Your experience and inputs on issues are relevant to or have impact on the regulation and supervision of the takaful industry. Malaysia as takaful & retakaful hub Let me now turn to the final part of my address by sharing Malaysia's latest initiatives to strengthen its position as a takaful and retakaful centre. I.  MIFC initiatives  Malaysia aims at enhancing its inter-linkages with the global Islamic financial markets. Among these are its continuous efforts to not only develop the financial infrastructure of the takaful industry but to also implement measures and initiatives that will strengthen our position as an international takaful and retakaful centre. Besides allowing up to 49% of foreign equity participation in domestic takaful operators, the Malaysian Government has also launched an initiative known as the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre or MIFC. The MIFC initiatives are specifically undertaken by the collective efforts of the country's financial and market regulators, including Bank Negara Malaysia , the Securities Commission, the Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority and Bursa Malaysia, together with the participation of representatives of the banking, takaful and capital market sectors. It is aimed at building greater intermediation linkages between East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East which will, in turn, further expand inter-regional trade and cross border investment flows.
On that note, I wish you a successful and productive Convention. Wabillahi taufik walhidayah. Assalamualaikum warah matullah hi wabarakatuh. BIS Review 95/2007  5