Malaysia awards 2 new Islamic fund licenses

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Malaysia on Tuesday said it would award two new Islamic fund management licenses, to India's Reliance Capital Asset and Kuwait-based Global Investment House.

"We have embarked on intensive strategies to establish Malaysia as a global centre for Islamic fund management activities," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also finance minister, told a conference on Islamic finance.

Malaysia wants to be a global Islamic finance hub, specialising in the origination of Islamic bonds, Islamic fund and wealth management and international Islamic banking and insurance.

However it faces growing competition from financial centres in the Middle East and Asia as well as from traditional financial centres such as London.

Malaysia has the world's largest Islamic bond market, with $66 billion or 62.6 percent of global outstanding sukuk issuance as at end-June.

(Reporting by Liau Y-Sing; Editing by David Chance)