Russia's first intl Islamic business & fin summit opens in Kazan.

25/6 Tass 249

KAZAN, June 25 (Itar-Tass) -The First in Russia International Islamic
Business and FInance Summit-09 opened in Kazan on Thursday. It "will
create grounds for economic cooperation", noted Mr.Khaled M.Al-Aboodi, CEO
and General Manager of Islamic Corporation for the Development of the
Private Sector of Islamic Development Bank Group, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
opening the forum.

"We are building a bridge between the Islamic world and Russia. Close
economic cooperation will help to overcome blows of the world crisis," the
bank CEO emphasized. He suggested that Russian companies "make use of
advantages of the Islamic finance system, establishing ties with the
Islamic Development Bank for this purpose".
"Russia, having become an observer at the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference (OIC) since 2006, actively expands cooperation with the Islamic
world," said official Russian representative in the OIC Kamil Iskhakov.
Islamic finance system, represented by 300 banks with the total capital of
700 billion US dollars, is expanding its net of offices in European
countries, above all in Britain and France.
In Iskhakov's opinion, Russian business should turn to the second
stage: closer cooperation with the OIC, which will yield great advantages.
"Kazakhstan's experience deserves attention: it adopted amendments to laws
on the civil code, on taxes, payments to the budget, insurance and
licensing.
"In a word, it wiped out legislative contradictions with the Islamic
finance system, which gave the country a possibility of direct privileged
financing from the Islamic Bank. Russia should use this experience," noted
the Russian representative.
The forum that will last two days, is attended by businessmen,
bankers, scholars and heads of over 50 companies from 20 European and
Asian countries, including Great Britain, the Netherlands, Indonesia,
China, Luxembourg, Russia, Turkey, France and CIS states.
The summit's agenda includes presentation of the Russian economy,
including that of Tatarstan, adoption of "a Strategy for the development
of Islamic business and finance till 2020" as well as discussion of
problems of small and medium businesses. Participating countries will
present their investment projects and will make presentations of their
economies.
Forum participants have proposed to stage such forums annually, and
"to turn Kazan into the permanent working ground for developing
international investment instruments", chairman of the organising
committee Linar Yakupov said. trends.
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