Malaysia, with an Islamic banking sector of about $43 billion, has been a pioneer in Islamic finance in southeast Asia. Its industry is at an advanced stage of development, and Kuala Lumpur is competing with financial centres such as Dubai and London to become a global hub for Islamic banking. The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have relatively small Islamic banking sectors, matching the smaller Muslim populations in these countries. The Malaysian government has recently made the announcement that it will introduce several key measures to support the speedy development of Islamic finance. The announcement has been welcomed by the Islamic financial industry. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak confirmed in his 2010 budget speech that the government is to extend existing tax incentives for Islamic finance for another five years.
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