Communication and direct interface with these key stakeholders will advance towards effective dissemination of information to promote greater awareness and appreciation on Islamic finance to create a more literate society on the virtues and benefits of Islamic banking and finance. The organising of KLIIFEX 2006 has some embedded key values and essence that need to be strengthened moving forward. The most significant is the strong alliance among the players within the industry as well as with the relevant institutions including educational, training and research institutions, knowledge centres and other professional bodies in promoting the development of the industry. Islamic finance will achieve greater heights with the collaborative efforts of all relevant parties, especially those outside the industry. The existence of these networks and linkages is a catalyst towards strengthening the landscape for future innovations and advancements in Islamic banking and finance at the domestic and international fronts. The second essence of KLIIFEX 2006 is the involvement of international players, particularly with the participation of foreign exhibitors in this year's event. As the cross border trades and international Islamic finance activities intensify, strong interlinkages among the domestic and international players are crucial. Leveraging on the significant inroads and growing global recognition enjoyed by Malaysian players, this event will accord opportunities for the players to understand each other's strength and capabilities that would lead to more strategic alliance in the area of Islamic finance. This is certainly relevant in our effort to enhance the position of Malaysia as an international Islamic financial centre (MIFC).

The embarrassing summersaults that various governments had to perform by unceremoniously ditching some of their most sacred and fundamental policies, have also been better understood, by many communities. Now, what is needed is to move forward decisively within this new paradigm. To do so effectively, we have to essentially place some barriers to deal with unsustainable risk taking. The freedom of the wild ass that supported unfettered and reckless economic actions to create things out of nothing has to be dealt with. At the same time, we need to revisit some of the fallacies that developed over the last decade or so, including those that indirectly said: “Don’t worry too much about a few bubbles”; “markets are always right”, “innovation should not be discouraged”; “state intervention is dangerous”, etc. In a way, some of these positions perhaps prompted a kind of an unconscious regulatory anarchy! The resulting subdued regulatory reactions were of course exploited by the greedy market and the rest is history! This time round therefore, the wisdom of such concepts and absolute reliance on them, would need to be critically reviewed. What then should we do? Maybe, we could start by making a “Wish-list”, and then moving towards making a “To-do list” to realize such wishes. What could we wish for? First, perhaps we should wish for effective “immunization” mechanisms to safeguard national financial systems from the contagion effects of globalized viruses and cross border toxic elements.