The Treasury Markets Association (TMA) is pleased to act as the Supporting Organization of the Asia Sukuk Summit which is to be held between 18th-19th February 2009 in Hong Kong.

This Summit is to be organized by ICG Events. The theme of the Summit is "towards a new silk route for Islamic finance".In the above capacity of a Supporting Organization, the TMA hope to contribute our support to ensure successful implementation of this ground breaking event, focusing on the latest developments in Islamic Capital Markets in the Asian region.

"Islamic finance has taken years to mature thanks to the efforts of regulators and market players. As you are probably aware, Hong Kong has recently joined the league of economies committed to promoting the development of Islamic finance. As a financial regulator, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) deeply concurs that promoting dialogue and exchanges among financial markets and industry professionals is important in addressing some of the key challenges the industry faces such as consensus on international standards and global awareness. No matter how far jurisdictions contribute resources to establish an infrastructure that provides an equal footing for Islamic finance, there remain the core issue that evolve principally around interaction between shariah concepts and business practices which often resulted in market misconceptions especially by unfamiliar conventional players.

Greater transparency and harnessing of standards are therefore demanded to push the industry to the next level of development, and it would not have been possible without the collective efforts of regulators and market players in respective regions.I therefore call upon your support in participating in the forthcoming Asia Sukuk Summit to be held next February in Hong Kong which brings together heavyweight policymakers, shariah scholars and industry experts to tap vigorously into the key issues and challenges so mentioned.

As with the successful London Sukuk Summit series brought together by ICG Events in the past two years, the forthcoming event will be the first staging in Asia, offering an unprecedented connection between market players in the GCC in the Middle East and Asia economies in the Far East, which are notably becoming more interested and self-engaged in the Islamic finance arena...

I also wish to extend my warm welcome as the event will be organised in our home city Hong Kong and in my capacity as Chairman to the Hong Kong Treasury Markets Association which fully supports this initiative. I look forward to seeing you in Hong Kong." Eddie Yue, Deputy Chief Executive, Hong Kong Monetary Authority.