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“Islamic banking does not necessarily mean tha t only foreign specialists should come to our country and open their Islamic banks here”, Linar Yakupov says . “In my point of view we need to introduce I slamic banking in Russia to have the opportunity to mobilize financial resources of Russian people and properly invest them in the county’s economy ” , he added . The H ead of the Organizing Committee says that 20 million M uslims living in Russia should have the opportunity to conduct business, save and invest without violating their ethical norms.
Head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan , Mr Shamil Ageev, also spoke about the great opportunities that the Summit could present, adding that Chamber s of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Russian Federation supported the Summit. “It is important that the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit is being held amid economic downturn. During crises everything seems to be shrinking . But organizing the event the Organizers want to reveal the potential available in our Republic. Tatarstan is open to investments – for instance, the Republic raised $268 billion for the last year only. We expect that both Russian and Tatarstan businesses will take an active part in the Summit and come out establishing some more new business contacts ”, Mr. Ageev told.
Distinguished practitioners in Islamic finance and banking from Malaysia are going to provide support to and participate in the Summit, according to the commercial counsellor of the Malaysian Embassy in the Russian Federation, who thanked the Organizers of the Summit “for their initiative in such challenging times”. Mr Khairul Nizam Munier says “today there is much talk about economic recession, but it does not mean we have to put things aside, and sit waiting. We need to be doing our best to develop cooperation in this field”.
Malaysia is known to be one of the leading countries actively using and developing Islamic financial instruments. But, according to Mr. Munier, there were many opponents of the Islamic economic model in Malaysia at the beginning. But now about 50% of customers of Islamic banks are non-Muslims.
This speaks again of the universality of Islamic financial instruments. That’s why we invite a wide range of different participants to the Summit: scholars, experts, entrepreneurs, representatives of various public, religious and non-religious organizations, state and large commercial structures, Mr. Linar says.
During the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit the participants will work in two formats. During the two days participants of the Business session will study jointly current problems in the sphere of business, Islamic banking and finance, find and try to work out solutions and general schemes of future development.
And possibilities of introduction of Islamic financial system model into the current legislative base of Russia and other countries are to be discussed within the framework of the Academician session.
One of the objectives of the Summit is representation of the Russian Federation in the international arena. “Both in academician and business spheres there are now representatives of the Russian Federation who closely deal with Islamic finance. We would like Russia to make an important contribution to the world Islamic industry as well”, Mr. Yakupov says.
The Head of the Organizing Committee pointed out in particular that in spite of the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit being held in Kazan it should not merely become a regional project. He called for support of mass media to bring to the public the idea of the Organizers – to make this platform in Kazan a real international event, where all the counties of Muslim world and regions of the Russian Federation have equal opportunity to present their potential. | 
