Islamic Finance Offers Huge Potential for Qatar and Turkey Cooperation

Islamic finance offers huge opportunities for cooperation and growth for Qatar and Turkey, according to a senior official of the Finance Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey.

“Islamic finance is a promising sector which offers huge opportunities for cooperation and growth for Qatar and Turkey. Both countries can play a crucial role in promoting Islamic finance,” President of Finance Office of Presidency of the Republic of Turkey Goksel Asan (pictured) told The Peninsula during his visit to the country recently. “We believe that Islamic finance is the future of the financial system,” he added.

He said that Qatar Financial Centre has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with its Turkish counterpart.

“One of the most important items in our MoU is that any financial institution that has permission to operate in QFC will have automatic permission to work in Istanbul Finance Centre. We have an agreement to work together with the Islamic fintech area,” he added.

The official said that they are planning to organize an event in cooperation with QFC in Doha that will focus on fintech companies. The event will give an opportunity to fintech sectors of both the countries to come closers and exchange ideas.

“Probably in January we will an event here fintech event together with QFC. We want to introduce our fintech startups to Qatari investors and also we are very welcome to have Qatari startups.  We want to concentrate on Islamic fintech because fintech gives us the opportunity to increase Islamic finance in the financial system. There is a great opportunity in fintech areas for Islamic finance, so we will work together on it,” he said.

The strengthening relations between Qatar and Turkey have resulted in exponential growth in trade volumes between the two countries.

Trade and investment ties between Qatar and Turkey have witnessed significant growth. The volume of trade exchange between the two countries amounted to about $1bn from January to August 2021. Moreover, the number of Turkish companies operating in Qatar amounted to about 675 companies, including 38 companies wholly owned by the Turkish side and 636 companies established in partnership between the Qatari and Turkish sides, in addition to one Turkish company licensed under the Qatar Financial Centre.

Originally published on www.thepeninsulaqatar.com