to bring together the industry practitioners, issuers and investors, the regulators, scholars as well as those in related services, including the it services, legal, accounting and auditing professionals and those in human resource development. it is our hope that the deliberations today will play a catalytic role in building greater collective efforts through multistakeholder dialogues and network - building activities whilst discovering opportunities and also improving our understanding on important areas in islamic finance. ladies and gentlemen, as we know today, there are already clusters of cross - border collaborative activities taking place on several fronts that serve to contribute towards increasing the international integration process of islamic finance. these activities have taken many forms ranging from equity and non - equity business collaboration, regulatory cooperation in setting the global development blueprint, information exchange and building consensus on issues for international prudential standards development, to intergovernmental memorandums of understanding for collaborative developmental initiatives in islamic finance, and many others. ladies and gentlemen, as islamic finance continues to make significant inroads in the international financial markets with expanding scale, growing magnitude and greater sophistication, a critical need emerges for an expanded discourse on the developments and emerging issues with its global relevance and impact, of interest to all its major stakeholders. this is the first time that bank negara malaysia has organized a full - scale, multi - disciplinary, international event of this nature on islamic finance. these sessions include the annual investors & issuers forum, and financial regulators forum and the biannual banking and financial law school. it is our hope that participants will benefit from any of the parallel sessions of their interests and have increased opportunities for network building among the widening groups of stakeholders participation in the forum. these forums have been designed to provide dynamic and interactive formats to encouraging open and inclusive dialogues that foster a greater collective understanding in islamic finance. let me record our appreciation to the many distinguished speakers from various international institutions, financial practitioners, legal fraternity, regulatory bodies and other prominent thought leaders in islamic finance. it is our sincere hope that this global forum will be rewarding and may the collective wisdom derived from the deliberations lead to more collective actions that will be to our increased mutual benefits. let me once again express our appreciation to yang amat berhormat dato'seri abdullah badawi for his presence here this afternoon and for accepting to deliver the keynote address at our forum today. thank you.

muhammad bin ibrahim : asean financial integration, collaboration with myanmar and other challenges for malaysia speech by mr muhammad bin ibrahim, deputy governor of the central bank of malaysia ( bank negara malaysia ), at the maybank myanmar grand opening, yangon, myanmar, 2 october 2015. * * * a very good evening, it is an auspicious occasion. congratulations to maybank on the opening of its branch in yangon, myanmar. i am very confident that the launching of this first branch marks the beginning of a productive, innovative and meaningful journey for maybank in contributing to the economic transformation of myanmar and in particular the development of its financial sector. i am confident that this branch will be the first of many to come. my remarks today will touch on three subjects : firstly, the importance of asean financial integration ; secondly, the close and long - standing friendship between myanmar and malaysia ; and the role of financial institution as a responsible corporate citizen. asean : story of the future that begins today members of asean have adopted an ambitious, unique and comprehensive vision for an economically and financially integrated region. i term it as unique since we are embarking on this process in a phased and gradual manner. each member country is given the flexibility to progress towards integration based on its state of readiness. it is an inclusive approach and a long term strategic plan to unlock the growth potential of our region in the coming decades. the case for integration is self - evident. from its inception, malaysia ’ s and its founding members ’ vision have always been for a strong and integrated asean region. the “ asean way ” believes there is strength in diversity and no country should be left behind. asean strongly believes in the concept of shared prosperity, where wealth creation within the region will be enjoyed by all. the spirit of cooperation and flexibility are amongst the principles which underpinned the success of myanmar ’ s chairmanship of asean in 2014. under myanmar ’ s leadership, we saw major strides in financial integration that culminated in the conclusion of the asean banking integration framework ( abif ) by the asean central bank governors. a framework of gargantuan achievement. myanmar ’ s leadership in seeing this through was crucial and now abif represents the single most important agreement in strengthening the asean banking system, driving deeper integration and enhancing the region ’ s growth potential. it is an agreement of momentous significance. i would also like to congratulate myanmar for successfully advancing the yangon outcomes for financial inclusion during their tenure as chair in 2014.