IslamicFinance.de

Turkey's Aegean province of Izmir will host an Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB) event between 26-27 April. The announcement was made by Turk Eximbank CEO Adnan Yildirim, who said that Turkey aims to boost trade relations with the IDB's 57 member countries. He added that Turk Eximbank wants to raise Islamic countries' 10% share of world trade to 20%. Turkey's current trade with IDB member countries is around $45 billion and the bank hopes to raise it to $100 billion within 10 years. Turk Eximbank aims to double its support to companies in IDB member countries. The lender ranks second globally after South Korea's Eximbank in terms of financing exports.

Ahmad Mohamed Ali, president of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB) was invited for the first time to approach the influential 84th Development Committee meeting of the World Bank as an observer. This was an important airing at the 2011 annual meetings of the World Bank Group/International Monetary Fund (IMF).
But it seems that Ali didn't take advantge to put the case for the role of Islamic finance in promoting economic growth and contributing to financial stability.
He instead advocated that IDB member countries need to assist domestic and regional markets through a coordinated intra-investment and intra-trade agenda that distribute production of goods and services among countries based on comparative advantage; and to improve human development and critical infrastructure to produce incentives for effective private sector growth that create jobs.

Standard and Poor’s (S&P) stated that Turkey’s participation (Islamic banks) “could continue their recent strong growth if they can cultivate stronger ties with their international owners and create a sustainable brand image,”. This puts ground to an Islamic finance market which is as old as the one in Malaysia and others in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Turkiye Finans, Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank (KTPB) and Albaraka Turk Participation Bank (ATPB) have got majority GCC ownership interests. Asya Participation Bank (APB) has arranged a joint venture with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector funding arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), called Tamweel Africa which invests in financial institutions, leasing entities and extends lines of credit to finance trade in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), the Statistical, Economic & Social Research & Training Center for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) and the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote and support the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
Khaled Al-Aboodi, CEO and General Manager of ICD, Dr. Savas Alpay, Director General of SESRIC and Dr. Umit Ozlale, Director of TEPAV, signed the MOU in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 6 on the sidelines of the 26th Session of COMCEC.
The institutions will liaise with one another and would also consider supporting each other through jointly conducting due diligence on specific feasible projects that have been identified for possible cooperation.