Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Enhancing financial linkages towards economic prosperity Joint opening remarks by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the Joint High Level Conference on Islamic Finance: “Enhancing Financial Linkages Towards Economic Prosperity”, Jakarta, 18 July 2011. *  *  *  Bank Negara Malaysia sangat berbangga kerana dapat bekerjasama dengan Bank Indonesia dalam menganjurkan Persidangan Bersama Peringkat Tinggi Kewangan Islam bertema “Enhancing Financial Linkages Towards Economic Prosperity”. Fokus khusus persidangan ini ke atas kewangan Islam dan perkembangannya di peringkat antarabangsa, telah memperlihatkan perkembangan pesatnya sejak beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini, yang turut menyumbang kepada hubungan ekonomi dan pertumbuhan kewangan antarabangsa. Persidangan hari ini mempertemu peserta industri, penggubal dasar dan pengawal selia, serta ahli akademia dan pakar Shariah dari Malaysia dan Indonesia untuk membincangkan peluang-peluang kerjasama. Pengukuhan jalinan kedua-dua sektor kewangan Islam kita bukan sahaja akan menyumbang dalam membangunkan serta mengukuhkan lagi industri ini, malah ia akan turut memanfaatkan secara optima sumber kewangan serantau dan juga meningkatkan keupayaaan untuk mengurus cabaran semasa dalam persekitaran antarabangsa yang sentiasa berubah. Izinkan saya mengambil kesempatan ini untuk menyampaikan penghargaan kepada Yang Terhormat Bapak Prof. Dr. Boediono, Wakil Presiden Republik Indonesia kerana sudi menyampaikan ucaptama di persidangan pada hari ini, dan merakamkan penghargaan kami kepada Duli Yang Teramat Mulia Raja Nazrin Shah, Raja Muda Perak, Malaysia yang telah mencemar duli untuk menyampaikan titah di persidangan ini. Izinkan saya untuk meneruskan ucapan ini dalam Bahasa Inggeris.

The development of robust financial markets and enabling environment for enhanced linkages between our markets are essential platforms to supporting our financial institutions and intermediaries for more effective business connections. The creation of counterparty banking lines between Islamic financial institutions in both countries and the development of efficient Islamic interbank money markets will aid this development. In particular, the potential for robust liquidity management would serve as a catalyst to fully capitalise on the tremendous opportunities in the sukuk market in enhancing cross-border financial linkages. The opportunities offered in this dynamic and vibrant sukuk market in both our financial systems are further widened by the fact that the South East Asian region and that of the North Asia and the Middle East countries continue to have high surplus savings that are in search of opportunities for investment and new asset-classes for greater risk diversification and improved returns for their investments. In addition, the participation in key international infrastructures such as the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) which will provide Shariah-compliant liquid instruments would also facilitate in providing an environment that is conducive for market players to grow. This would address the challenge of building bridges between the fragmented pools of liquidity in many countries, as well as address the cross-border liquidity requirements. The effective business linkages between the market players would in turn lead to cross-pollination of talents and resources, giving rise to innovative products and services, hence creating depth and breadth to the respective national financial markets.