and growing sector. the islamic financial sector we believe has huge headroom for growth. hong kong can also learn from the experience of other established centres, and co - operate with them to grow the market. indeed, there is no better time than now to contribute to the development of islamic finance. this region is in possession of a significant part of the global oil reserves and has topped the world in the accumulation of wealth. the abundance of oildriven liquidity generates a huge appetite for investments that cannot now be satisfied within the gulf area alone. such investments can be found in the emerging markets of asia, especially in china. although the dynamics are somewhat different in china, its tale of economic growth is as legendary as that of the middle east. china has experienced a huge inflow of funds in search of growth opportunities and at the same time the mainland authorities have been gradually opening up the country ’ s outward investment. as a special administrative region of china, hong kong plays a pivotal role as the ifc of china in the course of financial liberalisation. not only has it acted as a conduit for mainland companies accessing international markets through ipos, but also one of the largest sources of foreign direct investments for mainland china. with the continuing financial liberalisation on the mainland, hong kong is positioned as the most attractive destination both for investing into china and tapping china's funds. what are the challenges for us? opportunities aside, we are of course aware that hong kong also faces challenges in developing islamic finance. it is a fact that hong kong ’ s islamic community is not big, but we are confident that the development of shariah - compliant financial markets can take off even in environments in which the domestic islamic community is relatively small, simply for the fact that investors nowadays are looking beyond domestic boundaries and traditional finances as financial activities gravitate towards the middle east and china. indeed hong kong ’ s relatively small population does not seem to undermine in any way our performance in the conventional financial and capital markets. therefore we are not positioning ourselves as a market that can match the supply and demand of islamic products from domestic angle. our objective is to make hong kong a platform for international intermediation activities for islamic finance. what can we offer to the islamic investors? hong kong ’ s advantages lie in its strategic location, highly developed financial markets and infrastructure, and a business - friendly free - market environment. we are strategically located at the heart of asia with a broad hinterland that gives investors

bank prevail so they can have conservative strategy also in our country. this exactly was the reason that caused panic in the public, that some banks have problems in their main offices. has the situation been stabilized a little in this regard? the situation here is mainly stable. although there are occasional rumors in the public, the data do not mirror that, and we did not have registered, in any moment, that the deposits plunged with the banks the main offices of which are facing with problems. the deposits, generally, were increasing during all these past several years. clearly, we tried to explain to the citizens and i think that they understood well, that the deposits stay here in macedonia, and that they are not taken abroad, they are invested in the macedonian economy and there is absolutely no reason for fear for losing the deposits. speaking of banks, the companies are those being less credited than the households. does it mean that the banks do not trust the economy? it is fact that the last year, year and a half, the banks have been more focused on the households, and less to the companies. the main reason for that is the higher risk with the companies, because the bad placements with the enterprises got higher in the last two years, while with the households, they stagnate, or even decrease. it certainly has reflection on the bank perception and their behavior. however, with the introduction of the reserve requirement instrument, the rise in the savings deposits become evident, but can such instrument stimulate the credit growth, as well? yes, in the recent 12 months, we have taken several measures, especially with the reserve requirement, which were directed towards : firstly, stimulation of the crediting and secondly, changes in the savings structure in favor of the denar savings for the account of the euro savings. certainly, the measure which became effective in january where we reduce the reserve requirement for lending to net exporters and producers of electricity is already productive, we have already extended such loans worth approximately euro 70 million this year, while the measure that should underpin the denar savings for the account of the euro savings became effective at the beginning of the year and we expect that the banks will adjust their interest rate policies to this measure in the following months. did your forecast from the beginning of the year materialize, that the government is not going to borrow much on the domestic market, at least in the first quarter? within this period, since the beginning of the year, the government is