Global Islamic Economy Focus session summary

Session 1: Dubai, Capital of Islamic Economy?

The Muslim world often makes headlines for the wrong reasons but would the world pay attention if there

was a combination of sectors coming out of 57 countries across the world from South America to South Asia

that has the promise to rival the BRICs? These 57 countries are all members of the Organisation of Islamic

Cooperation (OIC), and what ties the Organization together is their Islamic identity that, if harnessed in

Cooperation has the potential to create a market for 1.65 billion people—62% of whom are under the age of

30—that is growing at twice the rate of the rest of the world.

Thomson Reuters IFG community held a Focus Session in advance of the Global Islamic Economy Summit with

Dr. Sayd Farook, Head of Islamic Capital Markets for Thomson Reuters, and Abdalhamid Evans, the founder of

Imarat Consultants. After a brief presentation on the status of the Global Islamic Economy, which measures

in the hundreds of billion dollars today and has the potential to transform out of niche status in coming years,

they engaged with members of the community to discuss the potential for the Islamic Economy.

Some of the opportunities we discussed have captured headlines beyond the OIC like the $685 billion spent

annually on halal food to comply with Islamic dietary restrictions. The halal food sector has developed a

foothold in Southeast Asia with the introduction of national standards and certification in Malaysia and is

attracting companies from nearby non-Muslim countries like Japan where firms like Nippon Express see an

opportunity they can capture. But, in too many countries, the market is lacking standards and food

acceptable in one country cannot be exported to another.

A similar problem has captivated the coverage of the Islamic finance industry where the Malaysian market

has been stuck on an island apart from its more global cousin in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) over

perceived laxity about sharia standards. The presence within Islamic finance of two competing regulatory

bodies—one in Manama, one in Kuala Lumpur—shows that merely stepping forward with a global vision and

a set of standards will not solve the problems.

And then there are the other sectors, smaller overlooked segments with even stronger growth prospects like

travel, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, fashion, entertainment and media that represent a second wave of halal

lifestyle products. Flying under the standard bearers of the Islamic economy, the halal lifestyle products

don’t even have name recognition or enough players to have their own calls for standardization.

The box is opened and the puzzle pieces are scattered around the table and a few have fallen off onto the

floor. Who is going to put them all together into a beautiful picture? That’s what Dubai has its sights on and

why it is playing host to the Global Islamic Economy Summit from November 25-26, 2014.

Everyone is standing around arguing about what the pieces say about the whole puzzle while young

entrepreneurs try to build businesses to offer jobs and halal products to the Muslim population in Malaysia,

Manchester and Managua. Come join us in Dubai and help put the puzzle together so that we can watch the

Islamic economy ntrepreneurs get to work on the next step of moving from halal to wholesome, not worrying

about whether their halal stamp would be waved through customs or be red carded on the way to its newest

market.

To register for the Global Islamic Economy summit http://globalislamiceconomy.com/

Upcoming Global Islamic Economy Sessions:

Session 2: Understanding the Muslim Consumer

Speaker: Shelina Janmohamed, Vice President, Ogilvy Noor

Date: Wednesday, 9th October 2013

Session 3: Is it time to stop calling it Islamic Finance?

Speaker: Moinuddin Malim, CEO, Mashreq Al Islami

Date: Wednesday, 23rd

October 2013

Session 4: Halal as an Asset Class?

Speaker: Rushdi Siddiqui, Founder & CEO, Azka Capital

Date: Wednesday, 6th November 2013

The timings of the sessions are going to be announced.

To know more about the session’s discussion outline and the speaker background, click on the session

title above.

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