The first International Forum of Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions was held under the patronage of Prime Minister of Jordan Dr Fayez al-Tarawneh in Amman. The Forum was jointly organised by General Council of Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions - Bahrain and Strategy - Jordan.
During the forum, different topics like emerging trends of Islamic banking in Arab countries, legal and taxation matters of Islamic banking, role of international institutes in Islamic banking and finance and importance of education and awareness of Takaful and Islamic banking were discussed.
A good number of experts and professionals from different countries like Pakistan, Malaysia, Palestine, Indonesia, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others participated in this mega forum.
While addressing the concluding session, Chief Executive Officer of Al-Huda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics Muhammad Zubair Mughal said that presently Islamic banking was growing at a very rapid pace and the Central Asian countries and African countries were its new destinations, where a rapid increase in the demand of Islamic banking was being observed.
Presenting the review of present Islamic finance industry, he said that the market of Islamic finance had reached $1.3 trillion mark, in which the share of Islamic banking was 77 percent ($1 trillion), share of Sukuk was 14 percent ($180 billion), share of Islamic funds 5 percent ($64 billion) and share of takaful was one percent ($12 billion) whereas the share of other Islamic financial products like Islamic Leasing, Mudarabah Companies, Islamic Microfinance and Islamic REITs was 3 percent ($44 billion).
He said that in comparison with the rate of growth of Islamic banking; the Islamic banking graduates were not being produced accordingly due to which there was a lack of supply of manpower than the demand of Islamic banking and finance which should be resolved immediately. He further said that the benefits of Islamic banking and finance should be disseminated to poor through Islamic Microfinance so that they could get rid of poverty and live their lives respectfully.-PR