mint, in this project. particularly for the mint to avail of its three officers, technical director dr parbir de ms kay chee and mr nigel priest to work with my committee on this currency reform agenda. thank you mr macdiarmid and your officers the support. at the same time i would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution of mr daniel haridi, chief manager of the currency and banking operations who is also the secretariat to the committee and our link with the royal australian mint. without his commitment, we might miss the targeted outcome for this project. time does not permit me to thank all members of my committee individually and to those that contributed in different ways towards this project. but i on behalf of the board of directors and the governor, wish to thank you all for your valuable contributions towards the completion of this project. when the committee started 2 years ago we targeted the 7th july 2012 as the date when these new coins are to be launched. it appears that we are ahead of the scheduled date by 3 days and as of today the new coins are available at all of the commercial bank branches bis central bankers ’ speeches and agencies through the solomon islands. congratulations to you all who provided the logistical support to achieve this outcome! thirdly, let me repeat the message i made at my opening remark. this same message i note is again highlighted in the prime minister ’ s speech, this afternoon. and the message is this : “ coins are important for proper pricing of your goods and services and therefore you must actively use the coins in your daily transactions and not to hide coins away in wooden boxes! ” storing coins in containers and not circulating them does not add value to you or the economy. if we want to use the coins as savings, then it is more beneficial to deposit your coins in a financial institution to grow your savings than locking them up in wooden boxes. i say this, because the cost of minting coins is expensive for the government. however since coins have a critical role in pricing of our goods and services and facilitate economic growth through trading coins must be made available to the economy. let me remind you that the basic unit of our currency is the one dollar. one dollar is made up of 100 cents and prices can fall as fraction of the one dollar. for example if we have no smaller coins, the prices of goods or services will start from one dollar and will increase by the multiples of one dollar. to void this possibility of unfair pricing, coins are

, the profit sharing and risk sharing characteristics in islamic finance strengthen the incentives for the financial institutions to ensure the profits are commensurate with the risks being assumed. it is this form of finance that we would want to encourage. with this underlying foundations, efforts are being directed to build the domestic financial infrastructure. a challenge that is being specifically addressed is the development of an active secondary global sukuk market. in this regard, there has been a lack of trading in the secondary market especially in the usd sukuk market as the investors tend to buy - and - hold the instruments until maturity. this is largely due to the scarcity of the instruments in the market. in malaysia, the growing ringgit sukuk market has resulted in an active secondary market. this is largely due to the regular and varied issuances throughout the year. this is supported by the investment in research and development and in talent development to ensure the availability of expertise in the structuring of sukuk instruments and in sukuk documentation. having the potential to innovate new instruments will depend on having the necessary talent. this is an area of focus in malaysia to develop the skills, expertise and capability. the islamic financial system in malaysia now offers a wide range of financial products and services that are competitive and able to meet the changing requirements of the domestic and global economy. way forward for the global islamic financial system as we advance forward, we need to recognise the forces of change and the transformation taking place in the international financial system and global economy. relentless efforts have been initiated to reform the international financial system by the international community to address the weaknesses that have contributed to the recent crisis. in this environment, islamic finance needs to continue to evolve to remain effective and competitive. the islamic financial system does not exist in isolation and will continue to develop as an integral part of the global financial system. as part of efforts to ensure sustainability in this new and more challenging environment, a task force on islamic finance and global financial stability was formed by the islamic development bank ( idb ) and the islamic financial services board ( ifsb ). the report, which was completed in april this year, sets out eight areas that need to be further strengthened to bring the islamic financial system to a higher level of performance in this new economic and financial order that is emerging. a recommendation of the report is the establishment of an islamic financial stability forum ( ifsf ) based at the ifsb as a strategic platform for productive dialogues to promote