Malaysia’s success in taking Islamic banking to a pre-eminent position in the world testifies to the hard work and the Islamic-centric focus of the country’s leaders, Deputy Finance Minister Dr Awang Adek Hussin has said. “When the Islamic banking system was drafted, many were sceptical, including Malaysians and several foreign countries, on the country’s ability to implement the system,” the deputy minister told media after a meet-the-people session at Kampung Tok Choong, here. Dr Awang was asked to comment on the recent statement by the Islamic Banking and Finance Institute of Malaysia that it was aiming to upgrade the role of Islamic banking to hold equal importance to the conventional finance system over the next 10 years. He said the notable position in world Islamic banking was not easy to achieve and could not have succeeded without hard work and sacrifices. He said among the benefits of Islamic banking were that it does not pose a high risk as the interest rates are fixed, thus not burdening depositors