Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong are participating in the Country Showcases which will be held prior to the fifth Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) Summit.

The event will be held on May 12, 2008, in Amman, Jordan.

The Country Showcases are part of this annual summit which is scheduled to be on May 13 and 14, 2008.

The summit, that the Central Bank of Jordan is hosting, is being held under the patronage of Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, and  themed 'Financial Globalisation and Islamic Financial Services'.

"This is our second year of introducing the Country Showcases as a pre-summit event. The IFSB is happy to provide this platform for its member countries to showcase their individual country initiatives and policies on Islamic financial services. This is in line with the IFSB mandate to encourage cooperation amongst its member countries in developing the Islamic financial services industry as a whole," said IFSB's secretary general Professor Rifaat Ahmed Abdel Karim.

The Country Showcases will run concurrently with another pre-summit event, namely a Public Hearing on two IFSB Exposure Drafts: 1) Governance for Islamic Collective Investment Schemes and 2) Capital Adequacy Requirements for Sukuk Securitisation and Real Estate Investment, which were issued in December 2007 for public consultation as part of the IFSB due process for preparing its standards and guidelines. – TradeArabia News Service