HRH Raja Dr. Nazrin Shah Ibni Sultan Azlan Shah, Acting Raja of Perak Darul Ridzuan who is also the financial ambassador of the Malaysian International Islamic Financial Centre, undertook a short visit Muscat on 1 May 2013. His Royal Highness was accompanied by HRH Raja Puan Besar of Perak Tuanku Raja Zara Salim and accompanying officials. The visit of HRH Raja Dr. Nazrin was to attend the 2nd Oman Islamic Economic Forum (OIEF) where he delivered a Special Address. Their Royal Highnesses and delegation were received by H.E. Dato’ Rustam Yahaya, Y.Bhg Datin Dr. Musrifah Sapardi as well as Embassy officials.
During his Address, HRH Raja Dr Nazrin said that Malaysia is looking forward to collaborating with Oman to address challenges in developing the Islamic finance industry. He said a potential area of collaboration and an issue faced by the industry today was human capital development, and Malaysia had established several institutions to provide training for Islamic finance professionals.
HRH Raja Dr Nazrin also stated that these institutions include the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance, the Islamic Banking and Finance Institute of Malaysia and the Securities Industry Development Corp (SIDC). Leveraging on these institutions, Oman and Malaysia can embark on joint initiatives to develop a pool of professionals to drive innovation and growth of the Islamic finance industry.
The Acting Raja of Perak further said that Malaysia's Islamic banking assets reached US$164.9bil (RM501.71bil) as at end-December last year, with an average growth rate of between 18% and 20% annually, while total assets of its Takaful industry amounted to US$6.4bil, with a market penetration rate of 13%.
HRH Raja Dr Nazrin also said that the the Islamic capital market reached a size of US$460bil, as at end-2012, after registering an average growth of about 14% per annum over the past decade.
On the global front, HRH Raja Nazrin said the industry posted an annualised growth rate of almost 15% over the past 10 to 15 years to reach a size of about US$1.3 trillion.
While this growth was achieved primarily in Muslim-majority countries, an increasing number of non-Muslim-majority jurisdictions have also been developing their Islamic finance industry, including the UK, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.
HRH Raja Dr Nazrin further added that the size of Islamic financial assets is forecast to reach US$1.8 trillion by 2016, while cross-border financing and investment activities are expected to accelerate, especially in the Islamic capital market, as emerging economies embark on infrastructure spending.
HRH Raja Dr. Nazrin also noted that that bilateral trade between Oman and Malaysia rose significantly to US$740mil in 2011 from US$265mil in 2010.
HRH and delegation left Muscat on the same day for his sojourn to Istanbul, Turkey on the invitation by President Abdullah Gul.
Embassy of Malaysia
Muscat
