This outturn reflected continued improvement in hydro-geological conditions and uninterrupted mining operations in the country resulting in increased ore extraction at both open pit and deep underground mines. On a year- to-date basis, copper output at 625,844.1 mt was 20.9% higher than the quantity produced in the corresponding period of 2009. 1  2  Previous quarter. BIS Review 148/2010  Cobalt output also increased by 16.1% to 2,349.41 mt during the third quarter of 2010 from 2,023.84 mt recorded in the previous quarter. The improvement in output mainly reflects continued benefits arising from the resumption of production at Konkola Copper Mines and Chambishi Metals Plc coupled with improved hydro-geological conditions. Further, cobalt output on a year-to-date basis at 6,362.2 mt was 59.7% higher than the 3,982.9 mt of cobalt produced in the corresponding period of 2009. Cement output 2 increased by 26.1% to 234,240.7 mt in the third quarter of 2010 from 185,702.0 mt during the previous quarter. However, on a year-to-date basis, output of cement at 577,130 mt was 4.0% lower than the 601,432.5 mt produced in the same period of 2009. During the quarter under review, international arrivals at the country’s four international airports 3 were 124,244 passengers compared with 105,163 passengers in the second quarter of 2010. This was 20.7% higher than 102,918 passengers recorded during the same quarter in 2009. Foreign exchange market The slow pace of economic recovery in the United States continued to cast a dark shadow on the US dollar, the world’s most traded currency.

The principles of these contracts can foster the spirit of entrepreneurship and promote due diligence and proper management of funds by the entrepreneur whom will benefit from the Islamic bank’s expertise in profit generation and financial management. The contracts also strengthen the fiduciary duty of Islamic banks as manager of the business venture and help to align its focus on longer term value creation. Islamic banks ought to further explore the possibility of using Mudarabah and Musharakah contracts to finance SMEs involved in green technology. However these contracts carry different sets of risks, therefore, it is important for Islamic banks to build its capacity in terms of talent and risk management capabilities to understand and manage new risks peculiar to the profit and loss sharing contracts. There is a need to adopt strong governance, transparency and disclosure practices to meet the due diligence requirements for determining the viability of business and investment proposals. In Malaysia, the recently enforced Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 is an important milestone in providing an enabling environment to spur more risk-sharing transactions. This new legislation promotes certainty to the legal and regulatory treatment of Islamic financial transactions by providing legal recognition to the contractual requirements in accordance with the Shariah. There will also be issuance of Shariah and operational standards of each Shariah contract that provides greater clarity and transparency, therefore facilitating effective risk and profit sharing activities to take place. We aim to issue the relevant Shariah standards before the end of 2013.