away. however, scaling up financing to support transition efforts is not easy. for example, low carbon transition is often driven by new and emerging technologies, which may still be in developing phases. investors may be hesitant in investing in these new technologies given the uncertainties involved. we also need to work together. this is where blended finance comes in. through this structure, we can bring together different sources of financing – be it philanthropy, government or private sector funding – to participate in the same project, while allowing different levels of risk taking. those who are willing to take up more risk can do so, which makes it possible for those investors with lower risk tolerance to participate in projects that they would otherwise be unable to take part in. in turn, this blended structure helps catalyse private sector funding to support transition projects which are less bankable. each dollar contributed – and its impact – is multiplied. 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches public - private partnerships are gaining momentum. for example, the imf's resilience and sustainability facility has been working with governments and other multilateral organisations in scaling up climate finance and crowding in private climate investments around the world. here in hong kong, we have also been fostering dialogue with stakeholders to explore scaling up private - public partnerships in blended finance. earlier in august, we held the first blended finance roundtable with the ifc to explore innovation and actionable ways for blended finance to help address the substantial need for transition finance. we will continue to keep this dialogue going. besides working together, we also need to make good use of technology. there are two potential roles that technology can play. one is addressing knowledge and data gaps. for example, the hkma has engaged an external consultant to develop a cloud - based platform for banks to assess the physical risk impacts on real estate in hong kong under different climate scenarios. we hope that the platform can help tackle the challenges that banks are facing, particularly in obtaining asset - level data. also, as sustainability disclosure continues to be enhanced, technology will play an increasingly important part in supporting more effective tracking, measuring and compilation of data. another potential contribution of technology is enhancing efficiency. as i mentioned earlier, the government issued in february its first tokenised green bond, which shortened the settlement process from the typical five business days, t + 5, to merely one day, t + 1. we are now working on a second tokenised issuance, which will explore additional new features. through

eddie yue : islamic finance – its potential to bring new economic growth to hong kong keynote address by mr eddie yue, deputy chief executive of the hong kong monetary authority, for the hong kong islamic finance forum, hong kong sar, 25 november 2008. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i would like to thank the organisers for inviting me to speak at this forum, which is being held in hong kong for the first time. in the past several months, we have witnessed the unfolding of a global financial crisis. the sub - prime problem in the us and the ensuing credit crunch in the industrialised economies have spread and brought about a weakening of confidence in the solvency of the financial system. concerns about credit risk exposures among financial market participants mounted following the failure of lehman brothers. interbank money markets in many economies came under extreme pressure or seized up entirely. extraordinary and concerted efforts by governments and central banks to restore confidence, inject liquidity and recapitalise the banking system appear to have paid off to the extent of preventing the collapse of the banking and financial system although credit and money markets remain stressed. as the turmoil deepened, people have also focussed attention on the wider impact of the crisis on the real economy, leading to a grimmer outlook for global economic performance. against the backdrop of this global financial crisis, islamic finance is inevitably affected and subject to challenging conditions reflected by a steep slowdown in activities such as sukuk issuance and declines in equity value managed by islamic funds. new sukuk brought to the market in the first three quarters amounted to some us $ 13 billion, down 40 % from the same period last year. 1 but the pullback in new sukuk issuance and the widening of sukuk yield spreads are generally in line with what has been happening in the conventional market. this broadly suggests that the global sukuk market slowdown has more to do with the general market conditions and a general reluctance to issue us dollar instruments. observers say that while there are still those who wish to issue sukuk, investors would prefer to stay on the sidelines in the current volatile market environment. it is true that the industry is experiencing a temporary setback, but this also reflects how closely integrated islamic finance is with the global financial system, which is not at all bad news for the industry because when global markets stabilise and take a turn for the better – as they must in the long run – islamic finance will ride on that