From The Telegraph (UK)
By Denise Roland
2:37PM GMT 11 March 2013
The government has announced plans to boost Britain’s profile as a hub for Islamic banking, in the hope of benefiting from the rapidly growing market for Sharia-compliant financial products.
A task force led by Greg Clark, Secretary to the Treasury, and Baroness Warsi, Foreign Office minister, has been handed the remit of “showcasing the UK as the preferred choice for the Muslim world to invest in and do business in”.
It will face its first test in October, when hundreds of key Islamic decision makers gather in London for the first World Islamic Economic Forum meeting to be held in the western world.
“This government’s priority is to make sure that Britain is open for business,” Mr Clark said in a statement.
“The Islamic Finance Task Force is a perfect example of our ambition to promote London as a leading financial centre and attract inward investment.”
The fresh push for developing the City’s Islamic banking credentials, which will pit it against current global hubs Bahrain, Dubai and Malaysia, comes two years after the government abandoned plans to issue its first Sharia-compliant bonds.
