Financial Time published the following article
from George Osborne (UK chancellor of the exchequer) regarding this week world
Islamic Economic Forum: This week, more than 1,000 investors from more than 100
countries and 15 global leaders are gathering for the ninth world Islamic
Economic Forum.
The forum is not in Dubai, Jakarta or Islamabad, however, but in London. For the first time, it is being held in a non-Islamic country – and Britain is honoured to play host. This is an example of the UK’s position as the centre for global finance. And we intend to keep it that way. That is why I have already set out to ensure that the City of London is the home to fast-growing new markets, from Indian infrastructure funds to offshore Chinese renminbi. Now we have set ourselves this ambition: to be the unrivalled western centre for Islamic finance.
This will not only create jobs in Britain, but it will also bring investment. London’s Shard building and the athletes’ village for the 2012 Olympic Games were made possible by Islamic finance. And Islamic investment is continuing to play a vital role in rebuilding UK infrastructure – from the £400m Malaysian investment in Battersea Power station, which will regenerate the Nine Elms area of London after decades of decay; to the £1.5bn Dubai investment in the London Gateway, the UK’s first deep-sea container port. Just look at the mathematics. Islamic finance is growing 50 per cent faster than the traditional banking sector, and it has huge growth potential.
A quarter of the world’s population is Muslim but only 1 per cent of the world’s financial assets are sharia-compliant. Across the Middle East and north Africa, less than 20 per cent of adults have a formal bank account. That gap presents a huge economic opportunity for the UK. We are building on existing strengths. London, with $19bn of reported assets, is already a major home to Islamic finance outside the Islamic world. Britain has more sharia-compliant banks than any other western European country.
And it has more than a dozen universities or business schools offering executive courses in Islamic Finance – including a new programme for senior executives at the university of Cambridge announced this month. We need to do even more if we want the UK to reap all the benefits of Islamic finance. So we have announced plans to make government schemes such as student loans, start-up loans and the enterprise allowance compatible with Islamic finance rules. But with the World Islamic Economic Forum in town, now is the time for a big and bold step that will cement the UK’s reputation in the Islamic financial world.—Agencies
The forum is not in Dubai, Jakarta or Islamabad, however, but in London. For the first time, it is being held in a non-Islamic country – and Britain is honoured to play host. This is an example of the UK’s position as the centre for global finance. And we intend to keep it that way. That is why I have already set out to ensure that the City of London is the home to fast-growing new markets, from Indian infrastructure funds to offshore Chinese renminbi. Now we have set ourselves this ambition: to be the unrivalled western centre for Islamic finance.
This will not only create jobs in Britain, but it will also bring investment. London’s Shard building and the athletes’ village for the 2012 Olympic Games were made possible by Islamic finance. And Islamic investment is continuing to play a vital role in rebuilding UK infrastructure – from the £400m Malaysian investment in Battersea Power station, which will regenerate the Nine Elms area of London after decades of decay; to the £1.5bn Dubai investment in the London Gateway, the UK’s first deep-sea container port. Just look at the mathematics. Islamic finance is growing 50 per cent faster than the traditional banking sector, and it has huge growth potential.
A quarter of the world’s population is Muslim but only 1 per cent of the world’s financial assets are sharia-compliant. Across the Middle East and north Africa, less than 20 per cent of adults have a formal bank account. That gap presents a huge economic opportunity for the UK. We are building on existing strengths. London, with $19bn of reported assets, is already a major home to Islamic finance outside the Islamic world. Britain has more sharia-compliant banks than any other western European country.
And it has more than a dozen universities or business schools offering executive courses in Islamic Finance – including a new programme for senior executives at the university of Cambridge announced this month. We need to do even more if we want the UK to reap all the benefits of Islamic finance. So we have announced plans to make government schemes such as student loans, start-up loans and the enterprise allowance compatible with Islamic finance rules. But with the World Islamic Economic Forum in town, now is the time for a big and bold step that will cement the UK’s reputation in the Islamic financial world.—Agencies
No comments:
Post a Comment