The size of global Islamic finance assets made a quantum leap from only $ billion in the mid-1990s to $ trillion at the end of 2011.1 Although the investment climate has been clouded by the US sub-prime crisis and the European sovereign debt problems in recent years, the global sukuk market is powering ahead. Indeed, last year was the best year for the global sukuk market on record, with sukuk issuances growing by more than 60% year-on-year, taking the outstanding sukuk amount to a new height of $ billion.2 According to some market estimates, the size of the global Islamic finance industry has the potential to increase five-fold from the current level to some $ trillion by 2020.3 4. The development of RMB-denominated investment products is equally impressive. In a short space of 6 years, the size of the RMB dim sum bond market in Hong Kong has grown from a modest amount of 10 billion yuan in 2007 to 237 billion yuan at the end of 2012. Offshore RMB financial products have also become more diversified, expanding from only RMB bonds to RMB equities, RMB investment funds, RMB A-share exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as well as RMB insurance products. The growth momentum of the offshore RMB financial markets is expected to pick up further, as more and more financing and investment activities can now be conducted in RMB, especially following the introduction by the Mainland authorities of the arrangements for inward and outward direct investments in RMB and the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (i.e.
Peter Pang: Islamic capital and money markets Welcoming remarks by Mr Peter Pang, Deputy Chief Executive, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, at the workshop on “Islamic capital and money markets”, Hong Kong, 19 March 2013. *  *  *  Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, 1. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this Islamic finance workshop. We are particularly grateful to Mr. Mohd. Radzuan, Mr. Azidy and Mr. Azahari, the experts from Malaysia, who have flown all the way to Hong Kong to share with us their knowledge on Islamic capital and money markets and their valuable experience in developing these critical components of Islamic finance. I would also like to thank Mr. Najmuddin of Bank Negara Malaysia for bringing the Malaysian delegation here. Two fast developing asset classes in the global markets 2. This workshop comes at a very opportune time as Hong Kong is looking to develop Islamic finance as a way to diversify our financial platform and further enhance our capability as an international financial centre. In my view, to be a truly international financial centre, one needs to develop a conducive platform for the two fast developing asset classes in the global markets – Islamic financial products and RMB-denominated investment assets. 3. The development of Islamic financial markets has been phenomenal in the past two decades.