role of market discipline in driving islamic financial institutions towards ensuring shariah compliance in the operations, but also contribute towards improving operational efficiency, strengthening risk management infrastructures and instituting sound and dynamic risk management practices. conclusion to harness the full potential of the islamic financial system, genuine endeavors to strengthen further the islamic financial infrastructure, to develop the islamic financial markets and to innovate islamic financial instruments and activities that are able to meet the changing requirements of the new economy and the contemporary global marketplace need to be continuously pursued. with the acceleration of the global integration of islamic finance, it will provide the synergies and opportunities for the islamic financial industry to evolve into an important component of the international financial system that can contribute to enhance the prospects for a more balanced global growth and global financial stability. on that note, i wish you a successful conference. thank you.

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.