WORLD - LIFESTYLE - Islamic Facebook Salamworld prepares to launch

www.todayszaman.com -In the world of social media, Facebook has long been king, but one company says that the market is ripe for a coup from an unprecedented contender: a social media platform for Muslims, by Muslims.

Indeed, Facebook’s user numbers have slumped of late. The website has been dropped by roughly 400,000 users in Turkey alone since March.
Yavuz Kurt is the PR director of Salamworld, a new social networking website founded on core Muslim values. Settling into a sofa in one of the company’s elegant reception rooms in Salamworld’s compound high above the Bosporus, he begins his pitch: “There are 250 million Muslim Facebook users who use that site because there is no halal alternative. We will provide this alternative.”  (source)

WORLD - FINANCE - Barwa Bank offering three-year, capital protected Islamic notes

www.gulf-times.com - Barwa Bank is offering a “unique” Shariah-compliant three-year capital protected notes linked to the Turkey and Indonesia equity markets until June 21.
“The Turkey Indonesia Equity Capital Protected Note is an investment opportunity for investors seeking potentially higher returns with 100% capital protection.
The growth is based on the performance of a selected basket of stocks in two high growth emerging markets- Indonesia and Turkey. (source)

INDONESIA - BANKING - Bahrain's Al Baraka posts 7% Q1 profit rise (plans for Indonesia)

www.arabianbusiness.com - Bahrain-based Islamic lender Al Baraka Banking Group posted a 7 percent increase in first-quarter net income, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.
The bank, which has operations in 15 countries including Turkey, Syria and Egypt, made a profit of US$57.4m for the first-quarter, compared with US$53.5m in the first three months of 2011.
The increase in profit came despite continuing political and economic upheaval in a number of the markets in which the group operated, as well as the impact of debt issues in the euro zone, Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel, chairman of Al Baraka, said. (source)

WORLD - CALL FOR PAPERS - 4th Global Islamic Marketing Conference - Istanbul Turkey 20-21 May 2013 - Submission deadline March 1, 2013

2012 Islamic Indonesia Call Papers Turkey

INDONESIA - EVENTS - Exploring & Developing the potential of Islamic Finance through the D-8 Islamic Microfinance Workshop

m.bi.go.id - No. 13/ 38 /PSHM/Humas

The Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia, Halim Alamsyah, opens the "D-8 Islamic Microfinance Workshop", which is also the 2nd D-8 Working Group on Development of the Islamic Financial Services Industry, on Friday 11th November 2011 in Jakarta. Bank Indonesia (BI) is hosting the workshop in conjunction with Developing Eight (D-8) member countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Islamic banking arm of BRI. The meeting is themed "The Role of Islamic Microfinance in Economic Prosperity and Community Empowerment", which incorporates a number of issues relating to policy, the concept and best practices of Islamic microfinance in Indonesia as well as other Developing Eight member countries, and will be held from 11th – 13th November 2011.(source)

INDONESIA - BANKING - Albaraka Banking Group ABG confirms interest in Indonesian market

Businessweek.com - Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Albaraka Banking Group BSC and its unit in Turkey may raise a total of $500 million in Islamic bonds this year, Chief Executive Officer Adnan Ahmed Yousif said.

Albaraka Turk Katilim Bankasi AS, the Shariah-compliant Turkish unit of the bank, may sell about $200 million in sukuk by November, while the Bahrain-based parent may raise about $300 million from a similar sale by the end of the year, Yousif said in an interview in Washington today.  (source)

MALAYSIA - FINANCE - Malaysian Khazanah fund company, Integrated Healthcare, doing interviews for investment in Turkey in the field of health.

DUNYA.COM - KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian state fund Khazanah Nasional'in, Acıbadem, reportedly conducted talks to buy shares.

According to news sources and based on one of Reuters'un, Khazanah'ın health units, 70 percent owned by Deutsche Bank is the Integrated Healthcare, consultant talks.

Integrated Healthcare is the recipient of multiple sales of items in stock and is one of the groups interested in the news, said the process can be completed in December. (source)

ARTICLE - The Emergence of Asia’s Islamic Finance Industry

By Mercy Kuo, PhD - Islamic finance is rooted in Shariah law, which prohibits interest-based financial transactions, gambling high-risk speculation, and financing any form of economic activity that can be considered detrimental to society. The industry’s modern-day evolution, beginning in the 1970s to the present day, was still considered an infant industry at the turn of the 21st century. (source)

TRADE FINANCE - Islamic trade finance seen lifting growth of sector

DUBAI, June 9 (Reuters) - Islamic trade finance has benefitted from shifting preferences towards Sharia-compliant banking and could serve as one of the key growth drivers to help the nearly $1 trillion Islamic finance industry double in size.\

The global Islamic finance industry, which has been growing between 15 to 20 percent a year, is widely expected to reach $2 trillion in the next three to five years. (source)

ECONOMY - Turkey urges OIC members to ratify origin rules for PTA

Turkish president has called on member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to ratify the rules of origin agreement that would effectively lay the legal foundations of a preferential trade deal among OIC members.

"One more country needs to ratify the rules of origin agreement to complete the legal basis of the preferential trade agreement. I am calling on member countries to complete the ratification procedures," Abdullah Gul said in a message he sent to the 27th meeting of the Standing Committee for Economic & Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of in Ankara.

The "Preferential Trade System" envisages a transition to a three-step tax reduction system among Muslim countries. To be launched, the plan requires the approval of at least 10 member states.

"The functioning of the preferential trade deal would further boost trade among the OIC countries." (source)

EVENTS - COMCEC - IDB - Ankara-Turkey, June 1-2, 2011

IDB

Progress report on the ITFC's role in the promotion of intra-OIC trade

Information brochure

27th Meeting of the Follow-up Committee of the COMCEC (Ankara, Turkey, 1-2 June 2011)

BANKING - QIB Will Increase Staff as Much as 7% by Year-End, CEO Says - Looking towards Indonesia

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIBK), the country’s biggest Shariah-compliant lender, plans to increase its workforce by as much as 7 percent this year, Acting Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Meshari said today.

The lender, which has about 750 employees, recently hired more than 50 people, having made a somewhat lesser number redundant, to bring in “new blood,” Meshari said in a telephone interview in Doha. There will be no more layoffs and further hiring is planned, he said.(full story)

CAPITAL MARKETS - Noor Islamic has sukuk mandates in Gulf, Turkey- CEO - Indonesia plans put on ice

* Mandates for Islamic bond between $250 mln-$300 mln

* Lender has no expansion plans for time being

By Shaheen Pasha

DUBAI, April 12 (Reuters) - Noor Islamic Bank has two sukuk, or Islamic bond mandates, one each in the Gulf region and Turkey, the Dubai-based lender's chief executive said on Tuesday.

The deal size on both issues would be between $250 million to $300 million, Hussain Al Qemzi told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai. (full story)

OPINION - Muslim BRIC has arrived

THE investing and financing world is about country linkages that are economic and financial opportunities clustered as growth stories. The most recognised country linkage is BRIC (Brazil, Russia India and China): it conjures mental images of geographies, growth, size, demand, etc.

Another term that is increasingly invoked by businesses looking for opportunities is 'RDE,' or Rapidly Developing Economies, and includes examples of Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and so on. To put theory into practice, globally committed firms, like Thomson Reuters, have established positions like Global Head of RDE. (full story)

ECONOMY - The Government of Indonesia and Turkey agreed on the use of Preferential Trade Agreement (OIC model)

The Government of Indonesia and Turkey agreed on the use of Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) countries of Islamic Conference (OIC) to be one that could encourage greater trade between the two countries. Indonesia has yet to ratify the PTA-related trade with OIC countries while Turkey has ratified. (full story)

FINANCE - Murat Cizakca (Inceif-Malaysia) - Islamic Countries Should Continue To Use Paper Currency

KUALA LUMPUR, Monday 17 January 2011 (Bernama) -- Islamic countries should continue to use paper currency instead of gold dinar as history has shown that the return to the coinage system could increase interest rates and inflation would be difficult to control.

Professor of Comparative Economic History at International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), Dr Murat Cizakca, said money should serve as a medium of exchange, not as a commodity.

"We need to continue with paper currency, and the central banks controlling paper currency should have full autonomy," he said.

HALAL - Foreign agencies using MUI halal standards

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - At least 41 foreign food certification agencies have set their halal food standards based on inputs from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI)`s Food, Drug and Cosmetics Research Institute (LPPOM), an MUI official said,

Among the 41 agencies were those of a number of ASEAN member countries, Canada, England, Holland, Belgium, Turkey, Japan and the US, Lukmanul Hakim, the LPPOM head, said here Thursday.

NEW YEARS THOUGHTS - Will dawn of new year take Islamic finance to next level?

By MUSHTAK PARKER | ARAB NEWS

Published: Jan 3, 2011 00:42 Updated: Jan 3, 2011 00:42 

The dawn of the new Hijrah year and 2011 could either signify more of the same as in the last year or a leap toward the first steps to taking the global Islamic finance industry to the next level as Malaysian Prime Minister Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak's government says it aspires to do.

FINANCE - Products: Offering grows in wake of crisis

By David Oakley, Capital Markets Correspondent Islamic finance investors love property.

The Shard of Glass, under construction in London, and Bahrain’s World Trade Centre, the Gulf states’ landmark twin-tower and luxury shopping complex, are two high-profile property developments out of thousands around the world financed by Islamic investors.

BANKING - Al-Baraka plans up to $500 million sukuk in Q1 2011 - Indonesia first priority now

BEIRUT: Bahraini Islamic lender Al-Baraka will issue up to $500 million in Islamic bonds in the first quarter of 2011, its chief executive said Thursday.

“We will issue sukuk in 2011 for the group in Bahrain between $200 and $500 million,” Adnan Yousif told Reuters on the sidelines of a banking conference in Beirut.

“It is a medium-term sukuk for five years and it will help financial institutions to attract new clients to take part in these sukuk,” he added.