Participants march through during a parade at the historic Merdeka Square in downtown Kuala Lumpur

The Malaysian national-level 52nd Merdeka celebration today was a brief and moderate affair in view of the Influenza A(H1N1) pandemic and in observance of the Ramadan fasting month, but the occasion was not without the fanfare and spirit of independence with the participation of people of all races in line with the 1Malaysia concept, reported the Malaysian News Agency, BERNAMA.

Carrying the theme “1Malaysia: People First, Performance Now”, the event was held at Parliament Square instead of Dataran Merdeka, and was confined to a rally and performances without the usual parade of contingents and the participation of school children.

Nevertheless, Parliament Square, often the venue of welcoming ceremonies for visiting foreign dignitaries, was a scene of varied colours with the participants in their colourful attire as well as the members of the security forces in their respective uniforms.

The rally began soon after the arrival of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Nur Zahirah at 8am. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his wife, Puan Sri Norainee Abd Rahman, arrived 10 minutes earlier.

The VIPs arriving for the rally were greeted by about 10,000 cheering flag-bearers lining the road for a distance of 1.38km from the roundabout near Bank Negara to Parliament Square.

Among the flag-bearers were representatives of the National Service Training Programme (210 participants), ministries and public agencies (300), 28 contingents of statutory bodies (300), private sector organisations (992), teacher training institutions (3,500) and a contingent organised by the Information Communication and Culture Ministry (5,000).

Soon upon arrival, Tuanku Mizan took the salute, and the national anthem, Negaraku, was played by the Royal Malay Regiment central band led by Major Zailani Mohd Okhtat.

At that time, seven helicopters of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) flew past overhead, bearing the Jalur Gemilang national flag, the Armed Forces flag, the flags of the Royal Malaysian Army, the Royal Malaysian Navy and the RMAF, the Royal Malaysia Police flag, and the Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) flag, as they spewed smoke trails in red, blue and yellow - the colours of the national flag.

Tuanku Mizan then inspected a guard-of-honour mounted by four officers and 103 men of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment under the command of Major Mohd Radzi Othman.

As the Negaraku was played, the Jalur Gemilang flag was raised and a 14-gun salute was fired.

This was followed by the reading of the Rukun Negara (National Ideology) pledge by seven academicians representing all the major races in the country, led by Norazmi Baba.

Also joining in the reading of the pledge were 52 representatives of the academic community, dressed in the attire of the various communities, as well as 500 members of the security forces led by Lt Col Hishamudin Jumat Abas Jumat.

The gathering then gave seven shouts of “Merdeka” as well as “1Malaysia: People First, Performance Now”, the shouts reverberating throughout the square and enticing the public to join in as they followed the event from outside the premises of Parliament.

There was also a choir performance of the patriotic song “Malaysia Tanah Airku” by the Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers (Bakti).

Suara Warisan (Koswa) of the Royal Malaysian Navy in Lumut concluded the 40-minute event with a choir performance as 200 people staged a cultural dance.

D-8 Secretary General, Dipo Alam, also extended his warm congratulation on Malaysia’s anniversary day. “Malaysia has been active member countries in our organization, and we believe that we shall continue enjoying friendly and substantive cooperation in all aspects, with positive growth in our intra-trade, investment and tourism,” he expressed his wish.

Here you can download various material for the Financial Infrastructure Development & Micro-Insurance Meeting for the D-8 Countries, to be held in Cairo, Egypt (4-5 October 2009).

The global takaful industry is expected to grow by 20% and reach US$10-15 billion within the next decade, led mainly by the GCC countries and Malaysia.

The global takaful industry is expected to grow by 20% and reach US$10-15 billion within the next decade, led mainly by the GCC countries and Malaysia. In this article, we take a tour of recent developments across the world, as reported by the Middle East Insurance Review.

Despite the absence of truly reliable and up-to-date figures, industry experts agree that the global takaful industry is booming. Depending on whom one speaks to, gross contributions in 2006 ranged between US$2 billion (Ernst & Young) and $5.7 billion (Takaful Re). According to Ernst & Young’s recently-launched World Takaful Report 2008, accepted contributions are expected to rise to more than $4.3 billion in 2010 and that a 20% growth rate of the industry would be maintained.

The drivers of takaful demand include high economic growth and increase in per capita GDP, a youthful demography, increasing awareness, a greater desire for Shariah-compliant offerings and increasing asset-based, Shariah-compliant financing. Despite significant challenges, the outlook for the takaful industry has enthused the Islamic finance world, according to Mr Sameer Abdi, Head of Ernst & Young’s Islamic Finance Services Group. “Assets held and financed by the Islamic financial services industry are increasingly motivated to use takaful to underwrite risk. Existing takaful capacity is slowly replacing conventional insurance in the industry. The challenge for takaful operators lies not only in tapping extrinsic demand but also in developing their capacity and expertise to provide a competitive alternative to conventional insurance,” he said.

While current growth rates indicate a future takaful industry of $10-15 billion within the next 10 years, there are critical factors that must be addressed. Key challenges facing takaful, as outlined by the report, include a fragmented and undercapitalised landscape, limited retakaful capacity, problematic asset management and lack of local solution offerings and local distribution channels.

In addition, the uptake of takaful is still low in Muslim communities. According to Dr Saleh J Malaikah, CEO of SALAMA, it accounts for just 1.1% of the total global insurance premium, whereas the Muslim population makes up 22% of the world’s population. Dr Malaikah has also estimated the number of takaful operators at between 150 and 200. In 2006, they numbered 133, up from 105 the previous year. The market remains concentrated in the GCC and Far East.

According to Ernst & Young’s inaugural World Takaful Report 2008, the GCC is the heart of the global takaful market, with accepted contributions in excess of $1 billion as compared to global contributions of $2 billion in 2006. Of the world total of 133 takaful operators, 59 are within the GCC.

Among the GCC states, Saudi Arabia, the largest economy in terms of GDP with more than a quarter of total Arab GDP, is poised to lead the way. With the implementation of the Cooperative Insurance Companies Law 2003, it has become mandatory for all Saudi insurers to be Shariah-compliant. According to Dr Malaikah, in 2007 alone, 21 operators joined the market and at the end of the year, the insurance business stood at $2.2 billion. This is predicted to more than double in three years. Joining in soon will be takaful giant SALAMA, which is in the process of establishing a $300-million retakaful outfit.

The Kingdom also benefits from its relatively large and wealthy population. More than half of its 25 million population are in the upper middle class or higher, and two thirds are under 30. The insurance industry received an additional boost recently with the introduction of compulsory health insurance for workers and third-party liability motor insurance. Under the new laws, both classes are expected grow in importance and keep pace with the boom in the property sector.

Kuwait now has 11 fully licensed takaful operators. It has also been the launchpad of Al Fajer Retakaful, which has a paid-up capital of $178.5 million and is backed by regional shareholders. In the UAE, Mithaq Lil Takaful, the country’s fourth takaful operator has just completed a successful IPO and is expected to commence operations soon. Takaful Emirates and Noor Takaful, the takaful subsidiary of Noor Islamic Bank are said to be eyeing the market as well.

In Bahrain, t’azur, a new regional takaful company backed by institutional investors from four GCC countries, was formed late last year with an authorised capital of $500 million. The country is also the only one with a dedicated legal framework for takaful.

The number of takaful operators in Qatar has increased, within the last year, to five, following Qatar General Insurance & Reinsurance Co’s launch of its takaful subsidiary. Syria’s three takaful companies intend to launch operations this year, while Oman’s first takaful company operates under the name of Al Madina Gulf Insurance Co.

According to a recent Moody’s report, the potential of the Islamic banking and finance market in Africa is huge. The actual depth of Shariah-compliant financial intermediation was only $18 billion at the end of 2007, equal to a market share of less than 8% of its potential size. More than half of the industry’s assets are located in Sudan, with Egypt ranking second, but with a much lower share of around one-fifth. Mr Anouar Hassoune, analyst and author of the report, said: “Provided that the continent continues to grow at its current pace, which is the fastest in decades, incremental wealth creation will make it easier for the Islamic financial services sector, including Islamic commercial banking but also Shariah-compliant insurance, investment and microfinance, to develop.”

Africa is the birthplace of takaful with Sudan introducing the world’s first general takaful product in 1979. Right now, it is the only country in North Africa to make it compulsory for all insurance businesses to be Shariah compliant. However, despite the long history of takaful in Sudan, the market remains relatively nascent. Insurance premiums reached a total of $171.6 million in 2005, and insurance penetration is only 0.6%.

In Egypt, where Islamic banking and finance companies still lag far behind mainstream commercial institutions, the acceptance of Shariah-based financial solutions remains exceptionally low by standards of the Muslim world. The Egyptian Saudi Insurance House, a provider of general takaful established in 2002, was the first to offer takaful in the country. Five other takaful companies have been licensed, the latest being a joint venture between Japan’s Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance and Egypt Kuwait Holding Co, which will provide both family and general takaful this year.

Elsewhere in North Africa, takaful investment has been driven by the Salama Group in Tunisia (Best Re), Algeria (Salama Algeria) and Senegal (Salama Senegal). Dr Malaikah has noted signs of interest in the Morocco market, which may lead to the launch of takaful products in the not too distant future. Takaful products were introduced to South Africa last year by Al-Noor Risk Solutions, which is currently riding on the licence of an existing insurer (Lions) and operates on the waqf and wakala models. It expects to obtain a full takaful licence within the next five years.

In the west, Takaful Insurance Co opened in Gambia at the end of 2007. Its Managing Director, Mr Momodou Musa Joof, became acquainted with Islamic insurance in Malaysia and decided to introduce it to Gambia upon his return.

SOUTH ASIA
The dominant takaful markets in this region are Pakistan and Sri Lanka, although India might join the duo soon, if Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance and Parsoli Insurance Broking are successful in obtaining a joint takaful license. Following the introduction of Takaful Rules, Pakistan saw its first general takaful operator, Pak Kuwait Takaful, open in 2005.
Since then, another two general takaful operators, Takaful Pakistan and Pak-Qatar General, and one in family takaful, Pak-Qatar Family Takaful, have commenced operations. The growth of Islamic banking in Pakistan will boost takaful as Islamic banks in Pakistan are required by Shariah laws to insure themselves with a takaful operator.This is creating a huge growth potential, as Islamic banks and financial institutions play an important role in the distribution of takaful products.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani market is grappling with the issue of low awareness and education and as well as ambiguity in regulations. In addition, there is also uncertainty in dealing with the law and a dearth of human resources. The situation is made worse by thin margins, leaving them with relatively little room to manoeuvre. Hence, companies will need to work very hard to ensure that their operations are not just effective, but also very lean.

Takaful entered Sri Lanka only in 2002, when Amana Takaful managed to overcome the tough legal barriers to entry and become the country’s first takaful operator. It was joined soon by Ceylinco Takaful in the latter part of 2006. Takaful accounted for 2.33% of the country’s general insurance market share in 2006, up from 1.71% in 2005. While demand for general takaful products is on the increase, the family takaful segment still needs to be developed.

Home to the largest Muslim population in the world, Asia is a major force in the global takaful market and will continue to play an integral part in the development of the industry. What is more impressive is the short period of time it took to stamp its mark in the industry. The earliest beginnings can be traced back to 1984, when Malaysia introduced the Takaful Act. Through careful planning by a regulator playing the dual roles of driver and enforcer, Malaysia has one of the most advanced takaful markets worldwide and is the undisputed leader of the industry in the Asia continent. It has also become a reference point for takaful globally.

As of 31 May 2007, total net contributions increased 74.6% year-on-year to RM1.27 billion ($401 million), while gross takaful contributions jumped 29.5% to RM717.2 million. Group and investment-linked products (ILPs) seem to be the flavour of the industry, surging by 326.6% and 200.1% year-on-year to RM622.7 million and RM210.4 million, respectively. One of the hot topics facing the industry is the issue of shared services. Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is actively promoting this initiative that aims to pool together resources of existing takaful companies and outsource them to create economies of scale, particularly in the backend operations such as claims processing and the like.

By the middle of this year, a trial project, which involves outsourcing all aspects of the backend to external parties while takaful operators only sell the product, is expected to finally begin. Currently, about five takaful operators support the initiative. Malaysia is also aggressively trying to court qualified retakaful players to complement and encourage the growthand expansion of the takaful industry. To date, two companies, MNRB and Munich Re, have received retakaful licences from BNM.

In neighbouring Indonesia, takaful only started in the mid-1990s, but there are already 38 takaful operators in the country, up from five just five years ago. This is because most players in the market operate through “windows” which were introduced to encourage more entrants to the lucrative business, and are only required to have a startup capital of only Rp2 billion ($217,000) – a very low and easy figure to meet. Many players, however, lack the finances and resources to operate throughout the sprawling archipelago and instead are limited to operating in major cities such as Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Bandung and Medan, where they will also have to compete with compete with conventional insurers.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has raised capital requirements to address the issue. By the end of this year, all full-fledged takaful operators are required to have at least Rp50 billion of capital.

Takaful and retakaful window operators are also required to raise their capital to Rp5 billion and Rp12.5 billion, respectively. This will be increased to Rp25 billion for takaful window operators and Rp50 billion for retakaful window operators by the end of 2010. Joining their ranks soon is PT Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia, which has indicated that it will be establishing a takaful window early this year. Malaysia-based Maybank is also setting foot into the market after signing a joint venture agreement with PT Anugrah Life Insurance, a subsidiary of PT Panin Life Tbk, to form a family takaful company.An emerging takaful market is Thailand, where at least 15% of its 60 million population are Muslims, mostly residing in the south. Three companies – Dhipaya Insurance, Finansa Life Assurance and Kamol Insurance – provide Islamic insurance, with Kamol being the latest entrant last year. Its president, Mr Manus bin Mahmood, told media that many Thai Muslims had tended to buy insurance products from Malaysia as none of the existing takaful products in the Kingdom were Shariah-compliant. Brunei is another emerging takaful market, albeit a tiny one. In 2005, three takaful operators wrote a gross premium of B$55.3 million ($40.7 million). The Insurance Order and Insurance Regulations 2006 encompassing life and general insurance businesses were passed as part of the ongoing exercise to insurance supervision in line with international best practices. However, there is as yet no legislation to regulate the takaful industry. As commonly practised by countries where takaful legislation is not enacted, the regulatory framework for takaful resembles that of conventional insurance. This makes it difficult for takaful providers to compete with conventional insurers.

The Finance Ministry is working on the Takaful Order to regulate and supervise the takaful industry so that both conventional insurance and takaful will not only be able to compete, but also complement each other as the market is very small.

Britain is set to get its first Shariah-compliant insurance company this year, when British Islamic Insurance Holdings (BIIH) obtains the final approval from the Financial Services Authority (FSA). BIIH will offer car and home insurance initially, with life insurance, investments, savings and ethical financial products to be launched later in the year. In addition, First Takaful also plans to commence its general takaful business in the UK this year. The FSA said that takaful businesses will be regulated as mutual insurance companies and they do not expect to change the accounting rules for takaful operations in the near future.

D-8 is organizing the Second Meeting the Financial Infrastructure for D-8 Countries, in Cairo, Egypt on 4-5 October 2009. “We are encouraging private sectors such as insurance and takaful companies from our member countries, to participate in this event,” said D-8 Secretary General, Dipo Alam. He said that the D-8 member countries should focus more on developments in this sector, such as Syari’ah Banking system, and Islamic Bonds, since they have growned to be a powerful tool in the financial world that even Western, non-Islamic banks are starting to eye for a share on this financial system and plans to assign London as the center for Syari’ah Banks, and Islamic Bonds.

* Participants of the meeting can download the materials for the said meeting by clicking HERE.

The people of Indonesia, numbering 230 million, celebrated the Independence Day on August 17th

The celebration kicked of with a 17-gun salute followed by the independence proclamation by the Speaker of Indonesia’s House of Representatives, Agung Laksono. The flag-raising ceremony and parade in front of the palace were also witnessed by Indonesian Cabinet ministers, including Vice-President Jusuf Kalla and foreign delegates and diplomats.

A total of 33 students, representing 33 provinces in Indonesia, were given the honour to be the flag-bearers for the ceremony. The ceremony was broadcasted live by the local television.

The people of Indonesia, numbering 230 million, celebrated the Independence Day nationwide with various activities including flag-raising, parades and telematches like climbing slippery pinang trees and catching ducks.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his speech that the war against terrorism in the country would continue, adding that people should be actively involved in the campaign to eradicate terrorism in the country.

“To all of Indonesian people, let’s stick together in fighting the terrorists’ acts. Let’s protect our children from wrong and extreme thoughts that could lead them to commit terrorism. Help the apparatus by supplying information on the terrorists who are hiding among our neighborhood,” the president said.

Susilo made the remarks when he delivered in his speech to commemorate national independence day at the parliament building.

He said the state would not bow on terrorists’ threat. “The state must not be defeated and will never be defeated by the terrorists.”

He also said Indonesia would persistently implement its foreign policies aimed at maintaining and sustaining world peace. Indonesia has long participated in creating world stability and peace through its membership in the regional and international organizations as well as committed itself in maintaining peace in conflict areas. Indonesia had led 2-years leadership term between 2006-2008 in the D-8 Organization.

Currently thousands of Indonesian UN peacekeepers are being deployed in Somalia, Lebanon and Congo.

The president also called for the reform of the United Nations and membership in the international financial institution.

D-8 Organization extends its highest congratulation to Indonesia as its member state, and hope that the country will keep on developing, while at the same time strengthen the cooperation framework within the economic groupings of D-8. “We sincerely hope the very best for Indonesia to attain its real position in the world economy in very near future,” said Dipo Alam, D-8 Secretary General, in his comment to congratulate the occassion.

If things proceed as expected, the refinery plant will be ready by 2012

Indonesia’s state oil company PT Pertamina has planned to establish a joint venture with state firms from Iran and Malaysia to build a 6 billion dollar oil refinery plant in Banten province, Indonesia. Pertamina last year put forward this plan with National Iranian Oil Refining & Distribution Co. (NIORDC) and Petrofield Refining Company of Malaysia.

According to the agreement, within two weeks of the signing, the three parties would establish a joint venture company in Indonesia which would start immediately on the project to be located in the neighboring province near Bojonegara.

However, Pertamina said the signing of agreement has been postponed from June 22 to early August 2009. The joint venture to be named Banten Bay Refinery would involve Pertamina, National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), Petrofield of Malaysia and possibly STX Pan Ocean Co Ltd of South Korea.

Pertamina director for processing affairs Rukmi Hadihartini said the signing of the agreement to establish the joint venture company was delayed to give a chance to STX Pan Ocean Co Ltd to take part in the consortium.

The Banten Bay refinery will build a crude processing refinery plant in Bojanegara, Banten.

During phase one, the refinery would run at 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Pertamina and its partners are planing to eventually expand refinery capacity to 300,000 barrels per day.

“Iran is committed to supplying half of the crude oil needs of the refinery, in other words, 150,000 barrels per day,” NIORDC president Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said. The 300,000 barrels crude oil figure translates into 200,000 barrels of Fuel, or about one sixth of the country’s total needs.

Currently, because of limitations in domestic refinery capacity, Indonesia imports fuel - -mostly from Singapore — to the tune of about 400,000 barrels of crude oil equivalent daily.

Thus, once the Banten refinery plant is up and running, it is hoped the coutry will be further able to realize substantial reductions in its dependence on imported fuels. In addition to the oil refinery plant, Pertamina is also looking into the possibility of investesting into the upstream oil industry in Iran.

“Initially, the agreement was to be signed without waiting for STX but we later agreed to give a two-month deadline to the Korean company to decide whether or not it will join the consortium,” Rukmi said.

She said that if STX decided to join the consortium the percentage of the share ownership of the respective members would be renegotiated.

Previously, the three companies had planned to sign the agreement on June 22, 2009, namely Pertamina of Indonesia, the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) of Iran and Petrofield of Malaysia.

About 40 per cent of Banten Bay Refinery shares would be owned by Pertamina, 40 per cent by NIORDC and 20 per cent by Petrofield.

Rukmi said that the postponement of the signing of the agreement would not affect the schedule for the completion of the project.

Despite the temporary setbacks, Indonesia, as a top tourist destination will continue its charm of cultural and natural diversity

The U.N. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported that while the bomb attacks that took place on July 17, 2009 have shocked Jakarta and the entire country, the city is recovering quickly. Based on a UNWTO mission carried out by Xu Jing, regional representative for Asia and the Pacific, on July 21-22, the UNWTO said the specific areas where Hotel JW Marriot and Hotel Ritz Carlton are located, life has been restored to its normality. “Jakarta did stop for a moment on Friday, but not for long. We are not going to allow terrorists to dictate and allow them to make Jakarta their hostage,” said Fauzi Bowo, governor of DKI Jakarta.

The latest data, obtained from Indonesia’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism and confirmed by the Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association, reveal that there has been no obvious tourist exodus from Jakarta nor from Bali as a result of the bomb blast. The Government of Indonesia, right after the incident, took a number of immediate actions in order to minimize the negative impacts of the attacks. A Crisis Centre was immediately established in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to provide the tourism industry as well as the individual visitors with the comprehensive information and the latest updates of the situation. Jero Wacik, Minister of Culture and Tourism, personally switched on the Ministry’s Emergency Response System and the Standard Operations Procedures (SOP), following the UNWTO’s guidelines for crisis in the tourism sector.

“There is no room for terrorism to kill tourism. There is no room for terrorists to use tourism to kill innocent visitors,” said Dr. Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of UNWTO. Despite the temporary setbacks, Indonesia, as a top tourist destination will continue its charm of cultural and natural diversity. In fact, Indonesia performed exceptionally well last year, achieving a 16.8 percent increase of international tourist arrivals. From January to May 2009, tourist arrivals to Bali, Indonesia’s prime destination, were up by as high as 9.35 percent when most destinations in the region were adversely affected by the financial and economic downturn.

Jakarta recovers quickly after the incident

At the press conference held on July 22 in Jakarta, Xu Jing, who was also taken to the site for inspection, congratulated Indonesia and the tourism industry of the country for their professional approach and efficient capacity in handling the crisis. He said that as long as the industry rallies together to overcome the setbacks, the country will continue to build an even stronger tourism sector in the nearest future.

Asia’s most wanted said killed in Indonesia

Meanwhile, Noordin M. Top, the suspected mastermind of series of bombings in Indonesia was shot dead by police yesterday.

Top, the terrorist who police say is the chief suspect in last month’s suicide bomb attacks on luxury hotels in Jakarta and other deadly attacks, is one of Asia’s most wanted men.

Indonesian police sources said on Saturday they believed the former accountant and maths teacher had been killed during raids in Central Java and were trying to identify his body.

Malaysian-born Noordin was once a key figure in Jemaah Islamiah, a militant group that aimed to create a caliphate across Southeast Asia, but analysts say he created his own more violent splinter group in 2003.

He is suspected of planning the bomb attacks on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and in Bali in 2005 — attacks designed to scare off foreign tourists and businesses.

The reported deaths of Noordin Mohammad Top, suspected of masterminding a series of bombings in Indonesia, and two of his associates may reduce risk of future attacks in the Southeast Asian nation, analysts said.

The usage of palm oil is still relatively limited to edible items, and has not yet effectively explored for the usage in bio-diesel purposes

Malaysia has made an offer to the Turkish government to refine crude palm oil in Turkey and market it to neighboring countries. The idea came up at the meeting between Turkish Agricultural Minister Mehdi Eker and Malaysia’s Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok in İstanbul on Tuesday.

Dompok noted that Malaysia was one of the leading palm oil producers in the world, adding that crude palm oil was produced on nearly one-third of Malaysia’s total arable land and that its palm oil was mostly shipped to China, India and Pakistan for refining. “We usually sell crude palm oil to such countries as China, India and Pakistan. Palm oil is refined in these countries and sold to neighboring countries. In order to balance trade between Turkey and Malaysia, we can do the same,” Dompok said. The minister also suggested Turkey and Malaysia could cooperate on lumber and furniture production.

Eker said the Turkish government had offered to sign a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia to boost agricultural cooperation. However, he said Turkey was still awaiting a response since the Malaysian government needs the approval of three separate ministries responsible for agriculture.

D-8 member countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, are world’s highest producers of palm oil, supplying up around 90% of total world production. However, the usage of palm oil is still relatively limited to edible items, and has not yet effectively explored for the usage in bio-diesel purposes. The challenge between food and energy needs is yet the biggest hurdle to be solved. Indonesia is on a continous research to explore the possibilities to use janthropa to cover this need, but the result has not been reached yet. D-8 Director, Amb. Kia Tabatabaee said that D-8 Organization is putting all its effort to support the development of this sectors, and implied that it can also learn from other countries to seek further potentials in this promising fields.

Source: TodaysZaman, D-8 Media.

D-8 has an approximately 900 million population with large moslem majority, and is supposed to be also a major actor in this Islamic financial system

The managing director of Jaiz International Plc Alhaji Mohammed Bintube has said that Islamic banking market in Nigeria has grown to N4.35 trillion (US$ 27.7 billion).

Bintube who was one of the speakers at the Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA)second innovation forum entitled: “Increasing Access to Finance through Islamic (Non - interest) Banking held in Abuja on Wednesday said with challenges facing Islamic finance in Nigeria, the banking market size is estimated at N4.35 trillion as at December 2008.

EFInA, an independent professional, non-profit organisation conceived and funded by UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), Ford Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was set up to promote financial development in Nigeria, hosted its second innovation forum titled: “Increasing Access to Finance through Islamic (Non - interest) Banking, at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

According to the chief executive officer, EFInA Modupe Ladipo, the result from EFInA’s Access to Finance 2008 Survey showed that 68 million Nigerians representing 79 per cent of the adult population are unbanked.

The survey, she said also highlighted that 92 per cent and 86 per cent of the adult population in the Northwest and Northeast geo political zones respectively is unbanked.

Ladipo said in the light of the findings, Islamic finance was considered as a potential innovative approach to increase access to finance for the unbanked.

“Islamic banking is very topical both globally and locally. Globally, it is being discussed as innovative, profitable and ethical in light of the global financial crisis, especially due to volatile interest rates. In Malaysia, Bangladesh and Pakistan, it has created access to finance. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently released the draft framework for Non - Interest banking, which was in response to the growing interest by investors and banks to establish non - interest banks and it’s one of the FSS 2020 initiative, which seeks to make Nigeria one of the top 20 economies by the year 2020.

Other international guest speakers were Mr. Omar Shaikh and Mr. Safter Sarwar from Islamic Finance Council, UK, a not for profit organisation established to promote the Islamic finance industry both locally and globally. Mr Shaikh and Mr. Sarwar shared their views on the state of the global Islamic Finance Industry, and highlighted that the industry is worth approximately one trillion dollars and growing between 15 per cent and 20 per cent per annum.

Commenting on the surge of the Islamic Finance, the D-8 Secretary General, Dipo Alam, says that the D-8 member countries should focus more on developments in this sector, such as Syari’ah Banking system, and Islamic Bonds, since they have growned to be a powerful tool in the financial world that even Western, non-Islamic banks are starting to eye for a share on this financial system and plans to assign London as the center for Syari’ah Banks, and Islamic Bonds.

“So we should be rolling up our sleeves, and start to work on this issue to keep pace with the world”, he says. D-8 has an approximately 900 million population with large moslem majority, and is supposed to be also a major actor in this Islamic financial system.

Source: the Daily Trust, D-8 Media.