Last Updated : 20 Aug 2010


As a growing and an open market economy, Malaysia embraces globalisation and welcomes foreign trades and investments in various industries. A good example is the Islamic finance industry in which Malaysia has successfully improved and enhanced cross border inter-linkages with other financial centres.

Cross border inter-linkages are crucial to facilitate the growth of Islamic finance regionally and internationally through the sharing of expertise and resources among financial centres and the establishment of valuable integrations across jurisdictions.

In order to achieve this, Malaysia employed an array of strategic initiatives, namely:

• Memorandum of Understandings (MoU);
• Double Tax Agreements (DTAs);
• Human Capital Development (HCD) in Islamic finance;
• Harmonisation and Standardisation of Shariah in Islamic Finance;
• Efficient and Effective Infrastructures; and 
• Financial Liberalisation Measures.

 

Memorandum of Understandings (MoU)

In bolstering efforts to promote business linkages and increase investment flows, Malaysia has established cooperative relations via MoU with six counterparties including Bahrain, Qatar, Dubai, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Australia and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

The MoUs covered numerous key areas of strategic collaborations including:

• Establishing relationship and mutual exchange of expertise and knowledge in Islamic finance;
• Establishing mutual recognition agreement for the cross border distribution and marketing of Islamic funds;
• Collaboration on the development of legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks, capacity building and human capital development;
• Cooperation in promoting business linkages and investment flows;
• Setting up mechanism for the exchange of resources and information in Islamic finance;
• Strengthening of financial arrangements to promote trade;
• Improving liquidity and risk management; promotion of collaborations, dialogues and research on Shariah matters in Islamic finance to promote consistent application for cross-border transactions; and
• Enriching the economic status of OIC countries.

These MoU further support Malaysia's position as an international Islamic financial hub thus becoming the preferred destination for international financial institutions, investors, issuers and talents.



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