Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, Barcelona, Spain – The General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions, the global umbrella of Islamic financial institutions, and the Association of the Mediterranean Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASCAME) and the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona are co-organising the 3rd Mediterranean Islamic Finance Forum, themed “Building Bridges” on the 27th of November 2015, at Casa Llotja de Mar in Barcelona, Spain.
In response to the huge demand for development of Islamic Finance in the Mediterranean region, CIBAFI has started its Maghreb (Mediterranean) Forum in Tunisia in 2011 and Mauritania in 2012 in order to create awareness of Islamic finance in this region as well as to create a so-called “Mediterranean Platform” for discussion on the issues and challenges of new markets.
Following two successful Forum, this year CIBAFI & ASCAME have come together to organize 3rd Mediterranean Islamic Finance Forum jointly in the framework of the 9th edition of the Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders.
This 3rd Edition will play a key role in building bridges for capital flows between Europe, the Middle East and beyond, with Islamic finance as a key catalyst for further economic development and boosting investment levels. It will bring together business leaders, policy makers and regulators to discuss challenges and opportunities for the Mediterranean region to tap into Islamic finance as a key source for Infrastructure projects and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) financing.
The Forum will shed more light on the Sukuk, which plays an important role in boosting the global volume of infrastructure financing. This is primarily due to the core structures of Sukuk, which are driven by underlying project or business, and hence have an exact fit with the distinctive risk profile and characteristics of infrastructure finance.
It is also important to link the Forum’s second topic the SME financing to the Agenda of the B-20 Turkey Financing Growth Taskforce that aims to increase and diversify the access to equity for SMEs, as well as to promote infrastructure financing. B-20 Taskforce Agenda which aims to promote development of innovative financing mechanisms that will in its place promote Islamic financing; encouraging equity financing by instituting tax incentives favoring balance-sheet equity; and considering legislation and tax treatment, where feasible to facilitate use of Islamic and other hybrid financial instruments such as Sukuk.
The Forum which is being co- organized by CIBAFI, ASCAME and Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona falls under CIBAFI’s Strategic Objective, in increasing awareness of Islamic Finance and promoting information sharing among its members and the industry stakeholders as well as collaboration with ASCAME with the objective to enhance knowledge on critical issues facing the industry in the Mediterranean region.
Originally published on www.zawya.com
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