Ahmad made the comment as he wound down a debate on the Labuan Offshore Financial Services (Amendment) Bill 2008 in parliament on 24th June, explaining that Labuan would reach its target by focusing on niche areas such as private equity and Islamic finance, the Edge Daily reported.

According to Ahmad there were 6,425 offshore companies registered in the Labuan Financial Centre as of March 2008. There were also 58 banks with total assets of USD26.6bn, 132 insurers with more than USD60mn in capitalisation, 106 leasing companies with USD16bn in leases, 22 fund management companies and 46 listed instruments worth USD16.1bn.

The Labuan Financial Centre was recently rebranded and relaunched as the Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (IBFC), a name which aims to be more reflective of Labuan’s new focus. In May, a new company - Labuan IBFC Incorporated Sdn Bhd, (Labuan IBFC Inc) - was established, fully-owned by LOFSA, with the responsibly for promoting Labuan as an international financial centre.

Having gone through a period of rationalisation, Labuan has ambitions to become Asia’s "connected, convenient and cost-efficient offshore financial centre."

Other recent developments include the publication of an Exposure Draft in February to provide guidance on the requirements to be observed by all offshore trusts created under the Labuan Offshore Trusts Act 1966 (LOTA) and managed under Shariah principles. The Exposure Draft aims to ensure that Shariah compliant offshore trusts created in the Labuan IBFC are based on necessary requirements under LOTA and Shariah principles.