8.47 AM Friday, 29 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:56 06:10 12:26 15:53 18:37 19:52
29 March 2024

UAE’s proposal for global Islamic financial policies forum approved

Published
By Agencies

(MUSTAFA KASMI)    

 

A joint consultative meeting between the UAE Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) gave approval for a UAE proposal to institute a global forum for Islamic financial policies.


The proposal will be submitted to the IDB board of governors for final approval. The experts gave their consent at the end of a two-day meeting of experts attended by IDB Chairman Dr Ahmed Ali, leaders of Islamic financial institutions, representatives of ten Islamic countries, central banks, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Khaled Al Bustani, Undersecretary for Resources and Budget, MoF, presented a paper during the meeting in which he outlined the UAE proposal.

The UAE also called for reinvigorating the auqaf (endowment) and zakat (alms) as key, important instruments for Islamic financing sector and for infusing these mechanisms into development policies.

“Challenges facing the Islamic financial services are depressing efforts towards achieving harmony, competition and transparency and developing accounting and auditing standards. We need a higher authority or council for Islamic financial services to reconcile between different schools of Islamic Sharia,” he added.

He said the forum will be made up of ministers of finance, central bankers, IDB, Islamic agencies for accounting and auditing, Islamic Financial Services Council, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

“The forum’s main mandate is to work out strategies for upgrading Islamic financial industry to serve the socio-economic development in the Islamic World,” he added. (Wam)