They spoke about preparation for the Summit, objectives and tasks of its Organizers before represantatives of various public and commercial organizations, as well as journalists of authoritative mass media agencies in Russia such as RIA Novosti, Delovoi vtornik, Russia today, Rusiya Al-Yaum, Al-Jazeera (Russia), Gatra weekly (Indonesia), State television and radio company of Iran, Aliyans Media TV, Islamnews, IslamRF, Muslim press, KSA2 (Kazakhstan), business portal “Republic”, “Sovremennaya mysl”, Al-Khayat, Al-Mussavar, Sovremennyi Islam and others.

The International Islamic Business and Finance Summit will be held for the first time in Kazan, Russia, on June 25-26 2009. The organizers of the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit are: IFC Linova (Tatarstan, Russia), the Islamic Research and Training Institute (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Kuala-Lumpur Business School (Malaysia), and the Russian Centre of Islamic Economics and Finance of the Russian Islamic University (Tatarstan, Russia).

Mr. Linar Yakupov said, the Summit is aimed at developing innovative economic relations through establishment of international business links and attraction of investments based on Islamic business principles.

The idea of organization of the event on an annual basis, which came as a result of the first International Investment Conference held in Kazan in June 2008, was met with support by the Islamic Development Bank and developed further due to the collaboration between the Islamic Corporation for Development of the Private Sector (ICD), member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, and IFC Linova.

Representatives of various business structures and world-renowned scholars in Islamic economics and finance will take part in the Summit. Speakers from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Russian Federation have already confirmed their participation in the Summit.

Among the participants who confirmed their participation in the Summit are: CEO and General manager of ICD, IDB Group (Saudi Arabia), General Secretary of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (Bahrain), President of the Kuala-Lumpur Business School, deputy of the General Secretary of the Islamic Financial Services Board (Malaysia), CEO of oil company TATNEFT (Tatarstan, Russia). Representatives of two auditing companies of the Big Four – PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, as well as the law firm Pepeliaev, Goltsblat & Partners (Russia) and many others.

Talks are being held concerning participation in the Summit of delegations led by ministers from Malaysia, Bahrain and Kuwait. Invitation letters were also sent to embassies and consulates of the main countries of the Muslim world in Russia.

“Muslim world has a special approach to doing business, attracting and investing funds. And the Organizers of the Summit want Russian business to also be introduced in the global orbit of the events which are held to establish economic relations between various countries”, says one of the organizers of the Summit.

At the same time, it is the Russian business community that has to be willing to work according to new principles. It would be wrong to expect investments to come from the countries of the Islamic world without changing our own view point, says Linar Yakupov. “Investors should be able to find partners with whom they could understand each other without words and who would be familiar with principles of the Islamic economic model”. Such events as the International Conference “Islamic banking: peculiarities and prospects” held recently in Moscow, the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit, to be held in Kazan, are aimed at paving the way for interaction of interested parties, finding points to introduce Islamic finance in the Russian reality.

“Islamic banking does not necessarily mean that 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 Islamic 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 Head of the Organizing Committee says that 20 million Muslims 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 Chambers 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.