LONDON // Dubai will host the next global gathering of Muslim political and economic leaders, the World Islamic Economic Forum, it was announced in London.
The forum, which attracted 2,500 participants and media on its opening day in the British capital yesterday, will be held in the emirate in November next year.
“Having the forum in Dubai is very good news. It will add value to the position of Dubai as an Islamic hub. Staging conferences and events is one of the pillars of the Islamic economy,” Essa Kazim, set to be the new governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre, said on the sidelines of the London event,
Dubai’s success in winning the right to stage the forum will be regarded as a major step forward in its ambitious three-year plan to become the global capital of the Islamic economy, as announced by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, last February.
It will also throw down the gauntlet to Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, as well as London, previously regarded as the economic hubs of the Islamic world.
A source close to the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, which has been involved in the negotiations between Dubai and the WIEF, said it had not yet been decided where the forum would be held in the city.
The London gathering is the first time the forum has been held outside the Islamic world.
Both London and Malaysia are major banking and financial centres for Sharia-compliant business. Dubai’s ambitions extend further, to include the production of halal products, travel and tourism, and other aspects of the Islamic economy. Dubai estimated recently that the value of the global Islamic economy was about US$8 trillion. The London forum said the Sharia-compliant financial sector was worth some $1.3 billion.
At the London gathering yesterday, the British prime minister David Cameron announced new measures to boost the United Kingdom’s position as the leading western Islamic financial trading centre.
Britain will next year launch a £200m (Dh1.18bn) Sharia-compliant bond, or sukuk, in a bid to cement its lead as a hub for Islamic finance. “We are the first country in the non-Islamic world to issue a sukuk. We have the pragmatism and political will to do it,” he said.
Mr Cameron added that Dubai wanted to “stand alongside Dubai and Kuala Lumpur as one of the great capitals of Islamic finance.
The British prime minister also announced the London Stock Exchange would launch a Sharia-compliant index of share prices across a range of corporate sectors, allowing Islamic investors to back companies governed by Islamic principles.
Sayd Farook, the head of Islamic finance at the information group Thomson Reuters, said of the British sukuk issue: “This is an important moment for Islamic capital markets as it demonstrates the growing importance of Islamic finance as a source of funding.
“It also demonstrates that Islamic finance is becoming more mainstream in non-Muslim countries,” he added.
fkane@thenational.ae
