This includes the visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to four Asian countries in 2006 and several meetings between King Abdullah II of Jordan and Singapore’s President and Prime Minister, to name just a few. I am happy that frequent dialogue and cooperation are taking place at all levels, via platforms such as the Asia-Middle East Dialogues or AMED. AMED was first held in 2005 in Singapore, and Egypt recently hosted the 2008 meeting. The 2008 meeting involved a total of about 50 countries from the Middle East and Asia. I am also happy to see strong cooperation in training. The Islamic Development Bank’s IRTI 3 , Bahrain’s BIBF 4 and Malaysia’s INCEIF 5 are Islamic finance-focused training institutes which provide very good training in this area. Such training programmes, besides imparting knowledge, enable people to know each other better, and provide the basis for future cooperation. Conclusion To conclude, let me summarise. There are three essential tasks we face in promoting greater integration of Islamic financial markets. The first is to encourage greater economic integration and increased cross border flow of trade and investments. Economic integration drives financial integration and vice versa. The second task is to foster appropriate legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks that effectively cater for the specificities of the Islamic services providers; and to work towards greater convergence of rules and practices in Islamic Finance. This requires greater trust and stronger ties among supervisors. The third is to cultivate stronger people-to-people bonds across all levels, through training, conference and dialogues.
I am pleased that negotiation on a GCC-Singapore Free Trade Agreement has just been completed. This will help to expand trade ties. I hope this can also catalyze the broader pact between the Middle East and ASEAN, which will help to expand trade and investment flows between our two regions. Some 250 Middle East companies, including the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, Proclad Group from Kuwait and the Emirates National Oil Company, are currently using Singapore as a base for their Asia-Pacific operations. Recently, the Al Futtaim group bought a major department store, Robinsons, in Singapore, as part of their strategic decision to expand into South-East Asia. Shariah-compliant funds which are deployed for investment in Asia have attracted strong interest from Middle East investors. One example is the ARC-CapitaLand Residences Japan Fund which was issued by a Singapore-based property developer. These are just examples from Singapore. I am sure there are more in Malaysia, Indonesia and other parts of Asia. My general point is this: the more we can bring the issuers and investors from both regions together, the more we can promote the use of Islamic Finance to fund some of these projects. 2nd task: addressing the need for appropriate legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks for Islamic finance All of you would be aware that the IFSB and IDB have co-issued The Ten Year Framework and Strategies. 1 It is a thoughtful blueprint. The Framework highlights the need for appropriate legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks that effectively cater for the specificities of the Islamic services providers.