Britain can be gateway to Islamic finance- Gordon Brown
By Paul
Some highlights from Gordon Brown’s speech at Islamic Finance and Trade Conference, London;
“Already, Britain is the largest European trader with many Islamic countries - the largest European investor in Oman, the largest non-Arab investor in Egypt, and second largest global investor in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia;Second, the foundation for making Britain the gateway to Islamic trade, is to make Britain the global centre for Islamic finance.
Today British banks are pioneering Islamic banking - London now has more banks supplying services under Islamic principles than any other Western financial centre.
And I want to thank also the Muslim Council of Britain and the many of you here who have worked with the Government through our tax and regulatory reform to support the development of Shari’a compliant finance:
- first, three years ago, for mortgages, enabling the expansion of the Islamic mortgage market to over half a billion pounds - growing by almost 50 per cent in the last year alone;
- then last year, for savings and borrowing and providing proper consumer protection for Ijara products;
- this year, for business finance, with last week Parliament approving measures in the Finance Bill for diminishing musharaka and wakala;
- and now, working with us, to look at international finance, Islamic securitisation and sukuk - and I am pleased that London was the financial centre chosen recently to advise on one of the largest sukuk deals ever done.All of us are facing up to the challenges of globalisation, to the rise of Asia – one million manufacturing jobs lost from America, Europe and Japan, one quarter of a million jobs offshored, oil prices rising not least because Asia now takes up 30 per cent of demand.
To secure a world trade deal, heads of government should stand ready to use all the resources of leadership and statesmanship. The prize is a 50 per cent increase in world trade - and specifically the World Bank estimates a deal could bring $14 billion increased prosperity to the Middle East and North Africa and a further $2 billion to Indonesia alone.
I am aware of the importance Islam places on education, through the hadith such as: "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave" and "Verily the men of knowledge are the inheritors of the prophets."
I was shocked to learn that while Muslims constitute 22 per cent of the world's population, almost 40 per cent of the world's out-of-school children are Muslims. In Pakistan alone there are nearly 8 million children not in school, in Bangladesh nearly 4 million, and over one million in Mali, a total of more than 40 million Muslim children who do not go to school
So I know you will agree with me that it is one of the world's greatest scandals that in total 110 million children do not go to school.And led by Hilary Benn, our Secretary of State for International Development, we will enter into 10 year agreements with countries to finance their 10 year plans, in total committing at least $15 billion over the next ten years - four times as much as the $3.5 billion of the previous ten years. In Singapore in September, I will press other G8 Finance Ministers to commit to their share..."
Related Links;
The Design of Instruments for Government Finance in an Islamic Economy
Islamic finance in the United States: A small but growing industry
Regulation and Supervision of Islamic Banking in the United States
Heard of Islamic micro-banking?
More links on the topic.
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