The pressing need for sufficient pool of intellectual human capital will be more evidenced with the continuous expansion of takaful business and the growing numbers of new takaful operators being established. To be able to assist in meeting this increasing demand for intellectual capital and not cannibalising on existing ones, Malaysia has taken the initiative of establishing the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance or INCEIF. INCEIF aims at meeting the objective of providing a talent development solution for the global Islamic financial services industry as well as the educational needs of the different levels of Islamic finance practitioners, including professionals and specialists in Islamic finance. INCEIF will also forge strategic alliances with domestic and foreign academic institutions to offer post-graduate programmes, namely Masters and Doctorates in Islamic finance in specific areas of specialization. A professional association for Islamic finance professionals will also be established for the alumni of INCEIF to keep abreast with the latest developments in Islamic finance. An endowment fund of RM500 million has also been allocated for INCEIF. Third area of focus is to promote greater international collaboration and cooperation in the establishment of sound infrastructure for the development of Islamic finance. 21. This is aimed at contributing towards a progressive takaful industry by promoting greater international cooperation among the regulators, practitioners and scholars. Initiatives have and will continue to be taken to leverage on international cooperation in terms of technical assistance and sharing and exchanging of information to further accelerate the development of takaful globally.

This is evidenced by the increasing number of takaful players world wide and the ability of these players in providing a comprehensive range of product and services, matching those offered by the conventional counterpart. In Malaysia, the takaful industry has experienced rapid growth and transformation since its inception more than 20 years ago. The industry continued to show positive growth, registering an average growth rate of 58% per annum in terms of asset. The growth is expected to be further strengthened with the increase in the number of takaful players. The Malaysian takaful operators are also actively venturing abroad to widen their global presence through the acquisition of equity interest in foreign takaful operators as well as exporting technical expertise to their foreign counterparts. Currently our domestic takaful operators have equity participation in Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Pakistan. 6. On the regulatory front, Islamic finance continues to pose unprecedented challenges to regulators in their quest to be at par with conventional regulatory framework while, at the same time, upholding the true concept of Shariah. Of importance is the development of capital adequacy and solvency, risk assessment and management and corporate governance, which are very much relevant to Islamic banking and takaful. There is also a challenge to develop internationally acceptable standards for the regulation of Islamic banking and takaful sectors, specifically in areas which involve different Shariah interpretations.