Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, prominent member of the Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority (Lofsa), Datuk Mohd Azlan Hashim stressed the importance of offshore financial centres in the global financial market, and revealed that the authority is working towards correcting the commonly held misconception that all offshore centres are havens for tax evasion and money laundering.
'Labuan also suffers from the same misperception as other offshore jurisdictions,' he observed, explaining that: 'We have to clear up the misconception of people who are in positions of influence and who can direct or initiate changes and as an offshore institute or centre, this is one key initiative that needs to be embarked upon.'
Also speaking on Tuesday, Lofsa's director-general, Noorazaman A. Aziz told reporters that 'Labuan is shaping up nicely to become a centre for Islamic financial products,' although addressing another potential misconception, he stressed that the jurisdiction has a clean track record, and practises common law.
'It is about working with the right agencies, educating them, giving them enough information so that they can understand how an offshore centre works. We are in synch with international practices and benchmarking and people use us as a benchmark; we have to educate people on this,' he explained.
According to Mr Azlan, who is also chairman of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE), in order to address the erroneous picture which many onshore countries hold of offshore financial centres, jurisdictions should work together to continue to upgrade their legislative infrastructure, and take a proactive role in developing new regulations. The development of high quality businesses able to respond to the increasing sophistication of global markets, and increased investment in human resources and technological development are also important, according to the KLSE chief.
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