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ICD Signs MOU to Introduce Islamic Banking in Azerbaijan

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The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, will introduce Islamic banking products in Azerbaijan and lobby for changes in country’s banking legislation in order to incorporate Islamic banking.

This will be realized in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the ICD signed with the Association for Azerbaijan-Arab Countries Cooperation (AACC).

With the signing of the MOU, the two institutions agreed to cooperate to facilitate information and expertise exchange in order to develop effective cooperation, which may include organizing joint investment forums, professional programs, market research, workshops, publications, study tours, qualifications, and much more.

ICD’s CEO Khalid Al-Aboodi stated that this MoU is strategic for both parties. “We believe it will enhance cooperation between ICD and AACC in the Islamic business and finance sectors, which reflects ICD’s determination to deploy all efforts to encourage Islamic finance in the development of the private sector in Azerbaijan and in CIS region,” he added

Chairman of AACC Elshan Rahimov, for his part, added that the political will of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev plays an important role in the formation of the friendly relations existing between Azerbaijan and Arab countries.

“We consider ICD as strategic partner in Arab region and by signing this MoU we cemented our relationships and it will help us to define our strategy for coming months,” he said.

AACC together with ICD plans to host First investment Forum for the investors from Arab countries in October 2017 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Islamic Development Bank is an international Islamic financial institution, established in accordance with Articles of Agreement done at the City of Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed and ratified by all member countries.

The purpose of the Bank is to foster the economic development and social progress of member countries and Muslim communities individually as well as jointly in accordance with the principles of Islamic Law.

The decision to create the “Cooperation of Azerbaijan and Arab Countries” Public Association is timed to President Ilham Aliyev’s initiative that 2017 has been declared the Year of Islamic Solidarity in Azerbaijan, and Baku currently hosting the Islamic Solidarity Games.

The aim of establishment of the Association, in which, along with Azerbaijani businessmen, entrepreneurs from Arab countries will also be represented, is the strengthening of economic partnership between Azerbaijan and Arab countries through the promotion of mutual trade and investment, development of friendly relations between the states.

Azerbaijan is among several central Asian countries creating a more welcoming framework for sharia-compliant banking to attract investments and financing from the Islamic capital market. Islamic financial tools can become the channel through which assets of those, who do not want to use traditional financial services, can be involved in the economy.

Originally published on www.azernews.az

Temperaments Determine Your Lifestyle

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The Iranian-Islamic traditional medicine emphatically gives prominence to each individual’s temperament – or to use the Persian equivalent ‘Mizaj’- as a determining and key factor in deciding one’s lifestyle.

In the Iranian-Islamic traditional medicine the excess or less of warmness and humidity define four essential temperaments of “Warm and Wet (sanguine or Damawiy)”, “Warm and Dry (choleric or Safrawiy)”, “Cold and Dry (melancholic or Saudawiy)” and “Cold and Wet (phlegmatic or Balghamiy)” respectively. The terms in the parentheses refer to four groups of material in the body (called “humors” or ‘Akhlat’) including blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm respectively. Words written in italic show original Persian terms in the ancient literature.

As each person’s temperament is distinctive- defining their distinguishing physical and behavioral characteristics- their lifestyle might vary from one another accordingly.

Not everyone can eat the same food or drinks since they have different temperaments which allow them to consume or advise them to cut down on some food items therefore there is no single prescription for everyone in the Iranian-Islamic traditional medicine.

Not everyone can consume the same amount of water, tea, or dairy products as others consume. Each individual should correspond to their temperaments to stay healthy and that’s where the Iranian-Islamic traditional medicine strength lies.

The Iranian-Islamic traditional medicine is an ancient paradigm for personalized medicine and prescription which individualizes healthcare for each person and in order to maintain one’s health all preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions must be individualized as well.

Health tips

Food stuff with warm Mizaj or warming characteristics (either in nature such as spices or after being heated like hot tea or hot water) can be harmful to people with warm Mizaj and relatively speaking they are more sensitive to them. Consequently such people are better not to eat up large quantities of food items with warm Mizaj and try to balance their diet by consuming food with cold Mizaj or cooling characteristics in order to add cooling effects to their bodies to balance it.

Same goes for the people with cold Mizaj who are better avoid consuming high amounts of food items with cooling characteristics (either in nature or after being cooled such as ice water). People with cold Mizaj should not drink much water in general particularly during cold seasons and once they get thirsty they are better not to drink ice water.

People with warm Mizaj have stronger digestive system and can properly digest heavy meals, however people with cold Mizaj, especially when their stomach is cold as well, display poor digestion symptoms and as a result they ought to consume limited amounts of food in accordance with their temperaments and avoid eating too much.

In some cases a person with a warm Mizaj might develop a cold and wet stomach so they have to reduce cold Mizaj food intake as well.

In general those with wet and cold or wet and warm temperaments are more likely to gain weight, so eating too much is harmful to their health. Nonetheless over-eating is not recommended to anyone.

Originally published on www.tehrantimes.com

Banking Reform Bill to Be Discussed In Iranian Parliament

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The first major step to implement much-needed reforms in the Iranian banking sector is to be taken by the government in summer when it submits the Banking Reform Bill to the Parliament, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran said.

“It is predicted that the Banking Reform Bill will be sent to Majlis by the end of the [third Iranian month of] Khordad [June 21],” Valiollah Seif was also quoted as saying by IBENA.

According to the official, the bill is currently undergoing verifications by President Hassan Rouhani’s Cabinet.

The Banking Reform Bill is the new moniker given to regulations that are to replace the current Usury-Free Banking Law. The last amendments to the Usury-Free Banking Law were made in 1983 while the law itself specifies that reviews are needed every five years.

Many problems of the beleaguered banking system and calls for improving the efficiency of lenders prompted the government to prepare its own Banking Reform Bill after the previous parliament failed to pass a controversial bill criticized by the government and banks.

As outlined by Seif, the Cabinet has decided to send the Banking Reform Bill in fits and starts, and the first part to be sent is a section concerning CBI supervision over the banking system.

The Banking Reform Bill outlines the duties of banks and non-bank credit institutions in obtaining a working license from CBI. It explains all banking operations and services, sets regulations for the establishment of branches pertaining to foreign banks and sets limits to their investments.

It also obliges credit institutions to provide viable information, puts in place a professional set of criteria for choosing new top executives and board members and makes provision for setting up internal risk and auditing committees.

Defining banking contracts and the legal status of the newly-formed Association of Banks, launching credit rating institutions and detailing lending and capital adequacy rules are among other articles of the bill.

Majlis Version

The head of Majlis Economic Commission also announced that the parliament is working on its own version of the bill, saying the updated version of the Usury-Free Banking Law will be ready for review in an open parliamentary session “by the end of the first half of summer”.

According to Mohammad Reza Pour-Ebrahimi, 20 expert meetings have so far taken place to analyze the bill and 40% of it have been reviewed. These reviews will reportedly be finalized “within two months” in the commission.

As the official had previously announced, parts of the bill are concerned with Islamic finance and Sharia compliance, which have been devised to “Islamicize banking affairs and make them conform to Islamic principles”.

Noting that the way banks absorb resources would undergo changes, the lawmaker said “major changes” are in store for a variety of deposits, loans and loan allocation.

According to Pour-Ebrahimi, the bill also includes the formational of a jurisprudential council that will supervise the performance of banks. It was previously announced that the body would comprise the governor of Central Bank of Iran, his deputy for supervisory affairs, five Muslim theologians with expertise in banking and monetary issues and one legal expert.

Originally published on www.financialtribune.com

KPMG, Sberbank Agree on Counterpart Financing at Kazan Summit 2017

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Baku, Fineko/abc.az. On May 19, a business breakfast of Sberbank and KPMG on “Counterpart Financing: #NewReality” was held in Kazan within the framework of “Russia-Islamic World: KazanSummit 2017”.

The moderators of the breakfast were Vugar Aliyev, Head of Financial Services at KPMG in Russia and the CIS, Managing Partner of KPMG in Azerbaijan, and Behnam Gurbanzada, Counsellor to the Deputy Chairman of the Board at PJSC Sberbank. The business breakfast was dedicated to the discussion of the prospects and triggers of the development of counterpart financing in Russia and the CIS countries.

Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Marat Kabaev, President of the International Association of Islamic Business, Oleg Ganeev, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank, Khalid Al Janahi, Senior Advisor of the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre, Hamed Hasan Al Merah, General Director of Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, AAOIFI, Alexey Simanovsky, Counsellor to the Chairman of the Bank of Russia, and Dmitry Saveliev, RF State Duma Deputy of the 6th and 7th convocations and First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Security and Counteracting Corruption of the State Duma delivered speech at the session.

Due to turbulence in the geopolitical sphere and in the world of finance, as well as certain crisis of confidence to the financial institutions, interest in counterpart financing is growing today. In Russia and the CIS countries, the issue of implementing counterpart financing is also of interest to traditional banks searching for sources of long-term funds. However, despite the well-formed client segment, this area cannot fully develop in accordance with the law. To introduce counterpart financing, which becomes a new reality of the financial sector, certain changes in the banking system and creation of necessary conditions for development are required. The purpose

of the business breakfast was to discuss these changes, existing prerequisites for them and further situation in this field in Russia and the CIS countries.

During the event, speakers highlighted all aspects of this topic: best practice in implementing counterpart financing, current situation in this field in Russia and Kazakhstan (activities of Sberbank working group, establishment of Tatarstan International Investment Company, counterpart financing of PPP projects and other projects related to export promotion) and issues of legislative regulation of counterpart financing products. The event ended with a discussion of the development prospects of counterpart financing, as well as in the context of various business segments, and Q&A session.

Originally published on www.abc.az

National Exhibition on Hijab and Dignity Underway In Tehran

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TEHRAN – The 11th national exhibition on hijab and dignity is being held at Tehran’s Shahr-e Aftab Fairground.

The event, which opened on May 3 and runs through May 13, follows the aim of making people acquainted with Iranian-Islamic products, Fars quoted Hamid Qobadi, the secretary of the working group on fashion and cloths as saying.
The exhibition is being held simultaneous with the 30th International Book Fair -Iran’s most important cultural and social event – in order to provide facilities for people to have easier access to the exhibition, Qobadi noted.
Meetings are being held on the sidelines of the exhibition to introduce the achievements of the Iranian-Islamic clothing industry, he said, adding that special books on hijab and dignity are being exhibited.
A reference book on fashion and cloths has been highly welcomed by the visitors, he noted.
Originally published on www.tehrantimes.com
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