Secretary General Seeks Partnership With All Stakeholders Towards Popularising Islamic Financial Products

Date: 08/10/2015

The need to promote active collaboration among the various stakeholders has been identified as necessary for the popularisation of Islamic financial products, with a view to addressing the challenge of financial exclusion facing the peoples of OIC member states. In his keynote address before the Global Islamic Economic Summit, which concluded its proceedings in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 6th October 2015, the OIC Secretary General observed that the OIC is currently working on mobilizing governments of OIC member states, public sector operators, members of the intelligentsia and research centers to fashion out ways and means of deepening their engagements in these critical sectors of Islamic Finance. These include such areas as Islamic Banking and Finance, the Halal Food and Pharmaceutical industries, Islamic Tourism, Fashion and Arts, and Islamic Social Finance. The message of the Secretary General, which was delivered at the Summit by Ambassador Hameed A. Opeloyeru, Assistant Secretary-General (Economic Affairs), recalled the on-going activities towards deepening partnership among the various stakeholders and OIC institutions in the Islamic financial sector. He noted that that although 95% of global assets on Islamic Finance were owned by OIC member states, the quantum of these assets, amounting to about US$ 2 trillion was still modest compared to the global revenue figure of US$74.3 trillion. Referring to the objective of the proposed workshop on micro-finance institutions scheduled for Khartoum in the first quarter of 2016, the Secretary General underscored the objective of deepening understanding among national micro-finance institutions of the Islamic micro-finance models, while sharing knowledge on best practices, governance, standards and regulation issues. On the development of the Halal Food industry, the Secretary-General confirmed the pre-occupation of the OIC in encouraging the adoption of unified Halal Food Standards and agreed accreditation and certification procedures by all OIC member states, drawing from the mandates of the relevant OIC institutions operating in this domain. To this effect, the up-coming stakeholders’ forum scheduled to hold in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 9-10 December 2015 will represent a trail-blazer in perfecting an intra-OIC action in this domain. Furthermore, the Summit was briefed on the successful convening of the 1st Islamic Tourism Forum held in Jakarta, Indonesia in June 2013 and efforts to consolidate on the momentum generated by this international exposition. In addition to expanding the scope of Islamic arts, fashion and crafts, the need to provide for the increasing number of Muslim travelers, who require Sharia-compliant food, sporting and leisure facilities, while staying in hotels receive adequate consideration. Finally, the imperative of revisiting the contribution of such Islamic Social Finance products as Zakat, Wakf and Sadaqat to addressing the challenge of financial exclusion in OIC member states was established, with the understanding that the Islamic Social Finance Report 2014 published by Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), in collaboration with Thomson Reuters has set the tone for further action by the OIC. Accordingly, the proposed forum on Islamic Finance scheduled for Albania in 2016 will review measures aimed at creating enduring frameworks for this initiative. The Summit made far-reaching recommendations aimed at sensitizing public and private sector operators on the progressive development of Islamic financial products, Islamic tourism, Halal Food and Pharmaceuticals and the Islamic social finance mechanisms.

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