On Friday, October 11, 2013, Borsa İstanbul organized an international forum entitled “İstanbul: Regional Hub, Global Actor.” The forum took place at the Ritz-Carlton Ball Room in Washington, D.C., and was attended by TAA President Faruk Taban.
The Honorable Ali Babacan, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs for the Republic of Turkey, delivered the forum’s keynote address. The event lasted from 9:00am to 2:30pm and consisted of two panel sessions and an additional press conference regarding the World Bank Global Islamic Finance Development Center. The forum was realized in cooperation with the İstanbul Financial Center Initiative as part of the efforts to make İstanbul an international financial center.
The first panel session, entitled “Turkey’s Comparative Advantage,” included panelists Mrs. Suzan Sabanci Dinçer, Chairperson and Executive Board Member of Akbank; Mr. Allen Collinsworth, President and Owner of Fara Group Inc.; Mr. Charles R. Johnston, Director and Senior Vice President of Citigroup; Mr. Dan Beattie, Government Markets Leader of Dow Chemical; and Mr. Greg Austin, Vice President of the EastWest Institute. Mr. Artunç Kocabalkan, Chairperson of the Istanbul Financial Center Initiative (IFC-I).
The second panel session, entitled “İstanbul: International Financial Center,” included panelists Dr. İbrahim M. Turhan, Borsa İstanbul Chairman and CEO; Mr. Meyer ‘Sandy’ Frucher, Vice Chairman, The NASDAQ OMX Group; Mr. Abayomi A. Alawode, Manager of Financial Systems Global Practice at the World Bank; Mr. Jaseem Ahmed, Secretary-General of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB); and Mr. Ijlal Ahmed Alvi, Chief Executive Officer of the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM). Mr. Benjamin Harvey, the Turkey Bureau Chief for Bloomberg News, served as the panel moderator.
At the Press Conference for the World Bank Global Islamic Finance Development Center, Dr. Turhan described Islamic finance as the solution for economy theorists in search of a new paradigm following the 2007 financial crisis. Dr. Turhan added that the Center’s operations would be carried out under the World Bank’s leadership with the support of Borsa İstanbul, the Treasury Undersecretariat of the Republic of Turkey, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, the Capital Markets Board of Turkey, and the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.
According to the project proposal for the World Bank Global Islamic Finance Development Center, the initiative will be implemented in İstanbul over a four-year period ending in 2017. It will cover the development of work programs related to Islamic finance and it will establish a physical presence for the World Bank in İstanbul through the center. The center will collaborate with stakeholders in the areas of Islamic economics and finance, including international financial institutions, standard-setting bodies, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector.[1]
The Mission of Bursa İstanbul is to establish, operate and develop transparent, efficient, reliable and accessible markets in facilitating trading, liquidity and price discovery for capital markets instruments; and to offer such markets to issuers, investors, intermediaries and other stakeholders thereby contributing to the financing of economic growth.
Simultaneous Turkish-English interpretation was provided throughout the entirety of the event.
[1] http://www.tdayszaman.com/news-328823-development-center-to-fuel-turkeys-potential-for-islamic-finance.html
