This was the reason why Singapore had initiated the Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED). AMED would help to share developmental experience, promote greater understanding and serve as a bridge between the two regions. Before stepping down as Prime Minister, I stepped up Singapore's relations with the Middle East, and continue to do so in my present capacity. In the past three years, I have visited almost all the Middle Eastern and the Maghreb countries – Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, the Gulf States, Iran, Israel and the Palestinian Territories – to name a few. Trade and investment between Singapore and the Middle East have shot up. To date, Singapore companies have secured more than $ billion worth of projects. Funds from the Middle East managed in Singapore have increased to around $ billion. But there is room for greater growth. I have started a second round of visits to the Middle East, beginning with Abu Dhabi this year. I want to further strengthen Singapore's relations with them. Let me now turn to the theme of today's conference – integrating awqaf into the Islamic financial sector. I have dealt at some length on relations between Asia and the Middle East because I wanted to put this conference in a larger context. The evolution of awqaf and Islamic finance is in a sense about how Muslims are adapting traditional concepts to modern living and how Islamic finance is moving out of the Middle East into the rest of the world.
Banks in Hong Kong made great strides in BCP during the preparations for the onslaught of the Y2K bug. Although the onslaught never came, we were soon reminded of the importance of BCP by the 9-11 attack, which alerted us to the need for robustness in payment, clearing and settlement systems, among other things. Then the outbreak of SARS last year put the BCP capability of banks in Hong Kong to a real test. I am pleased to say that the contingency arrangements of banks - whether of a technical or personnel nature - performed very well during that difficult time. Nevertheless, the recurrence of disasters and their unpredictable nature should always be a feature of BCP and its continuous review. Indeed, the probability of occurrence of these events seems to have increased, along with heightened geo-political tension and the trend of globalisation, not just of trade and markets but also of terrorism and disease. BIS Review 37/2004  3  A further area that falls broadly under technology risk comes from outsourcing. Continuing pressure on profitability will no doubt result in more banks seeking to outsource their operations to lower-cost centres outside of Hong Kong. This will in turn give rise to additional operational risks for banks, including the risks of service outage and leakage of confidential customer data.