By KUNA,
Kuwait : The volume of deposits and assets in Islamic banks currently exceeds USD 500 billion and are expected to reach USD one trillion by 2012, said Chairman of Kuwait Banks Association Abdulmajeed Al-Shatti on Monday.
The official was speaking at the inauguration of the forum entitled “Development and Finance in the Islamic World: Between Islamic Development Agencies, Kuwait and International Financial Institutions,” held at the Arab Organizations Headquarters on the sidelines of the Fourth World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF).
Al-Shatti said that the total gross domestic product (GDP) of members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) stood at USD 7.8 trillion in 2006, accounting for 12 percent of the world’s total GDP.
He said the Islamic world was rich with resources but that what was needed was the optimum exploitation of human resources and infrastructure, as well as opening up markets, passing legislations that encouraged investment, supporting trade exchange and creating a safe environment for investment.
In the past decade, he said the world had increasingly turned toward Islamic banking, and there was a rising interest in this sector by renowned financial institutions in the UK and the US.
Moreover, Al-Shatti said that many conventional banks in Arab and Muslim countries were opening branches that operated according to the Islamic Sharia.
The official stressed the need to allow conventional banks to employ Islamic banking tools and products in their branches until such a time that they could make a complete transformation, noting that this was in the interest of clients and served to diversify products and raise competitiveness.
As for the case of Kuwait, he said that financial and investment firms that operated in line with the Islamic Sharia began in 1977 with the establishment of Kuwait Finance House, noting the great growth in this sector over the past five years.
Al-Shatti concluded by saying that Muslim countries were in dire need for economic stability and development, noting that political stability was the way toward prosperity in the financial and banking sectors.
The Foruth WIEF will kick off tomorrow under the auspices of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.