LONDON
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said that London was one of the most important centres in the world where the Islamic financing model was being used quite often.
Babacan who delivered a speech at the 9th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in British capital London on Tuesday, assessed the highlights of the forum and replied the questions of the Turkish press members later on in the day.
Babacan highlighted that London was one of the most important centres in the world where the Islamic financing model was being used quite often and stated, "Here, the UK government announced today that next year they will be issuing a bond-like sukuk. British Prime Minister David Cameron shared that with public today. So, even though London is not a member of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), nor a partner of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), it is still an important finance centre. As it is becoming a more important centre for the Islamic finance instruments aspect, it made a gesture of holding such an event here in London."
Upon the question of, "Are there any agenda topics about the instruments being similar to the sukuk in the field of Islamic finance coming to Turkey," Babacan replied as saying, "Within this week, we will be holding the official opening of the Global Center for Islamic Finance of the World Bank in Istanbul. We are benefiting from the places of Borsa Istanbul. This is taking place after long negotiations between the World Bank and Turkish Treasury. Of course, it is very important for us that the World Bank preferred Turkey for such a work. Because we are placing most of our efforts in order to make Istanbul the international finance centre. "
Babacan stated that the participation banking was a settled one in Turkey and that even now the public service would enter the participation banking. "Alongside that sukuk applications have begun" he added.
"It stared both in the public and private sector. Of course there are many derivatives of sukuk. The one that we place is more based on real estate. However, there are also sukuk applications based on rights not only on real estate across the world," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said.
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