Rustam Minnikhanov: Our country has big prospects in the sphere of development of Islamic economy

On 3 November in his welcoming speech at a ceremony of opening the 19th annual conference on Islamic banking and finances in Manama, the main topic of which is “Leveraging Islamic Finance to Build a Sustainable, Efficient and Resilient Halal System for Muslim Economies”, the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov thanked the King of Bahrain His Majesty Hamad ibn ʿIsa Al Khalifah and organizers of the conference for the opportunity for the Tatarstan delegation to take part in the forum and reminded that by an errand from Russian President Vladimir Putin he is the head of the Strategic Vision Group “Russia-Islamic World”. 

He emphasized Russia and the Islamic world have traditionally close and trustworthy relations. “Russia is open to the broadest business and humanitarian interaction with the Islamic world and the Strategic Vision Group “Russia-Islamic World” is one of the important mechanisms of cooperation of our country with Muslim countries,” he said. 

He informed that Tatarstan is making its contribution into the development of relations of Russia with the Organizations of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) by hosting a yearly forum of “Russia-the Islamic world: KazanForum“. “It is the largest economic platform in our country for discussing issues of cooperation of Russia and Muslim countries,” Rustam Minnikhanov said and invited participants of the conference to take part in the next forum in May of 2025. 

He said that Russia has big prospects in the sphere of development of Islamic economy and reminded that Tatarstan is a pilot region in implementation of principles of Islamic banking and financing in Russia. He also said that all Islamic financing products in the Russian market “have been developed especially by Tatarstan specialists who were certified by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI).” “Within the framework of cooperation with the AAOIFI there is the only one in Russia Testing Center established in the Russia Islamic Institute which makes it is  possible to pass certification without going abroad from Russia,” Rustam Minnikhanov said and informed that currently there are 12 such certified specialists in the country. 

The conference on Islamic banking and finances is held in Bahrain every year under the auspices of the AAOIFI and the Islamic Bank of Development and the Bahrain Central Bank with participation of representatives of banks, supervising and regulating bodies, Islamic financial institutes and specialists from bookkeeping, audit and legal companies and academic institutions.