BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17. Azerbaijan has great
potential in the development of Islamic finance, CEO of the
International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILMC),
Mohamad Safri Hamid, said, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.


Hamid made the remark at the panel titled "CEO's session on
making regional integration attractive for investment: promoting
trade, mobilizing investment and systematically de-risking growth"
held within the framework of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Islamic
Development Bank (IsDB) Group in Baku.


He compared the current size of the Islamic finance sector to
the global financial system, saying it still has a very small
share.


The CEO noted that although the volume of Islamic finance has
reached about $5 trillion, this figure is less than 1% of the
global financial system.


"We should be happy, we should celebrate the increase in Islamic
finance from $1 trillion in 2010 to $5 trillion today. But this is
still not even 1 percent compared to the global financial system.
This is a drop in the ocean," he said.


According to him, although the Islamic finance system has
developed over the past 50-60 years, it still has significant
expansion potential, and international cooperation in this area is
important.


Hamid stressed that Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries in
particular should play a more active role in this process.







"We need Baku, Azerbaijan, and Central Asia. If we do not help
ourselves, no one will help us," the CEO explained.


He added that it is unrealistic to rely on Western countries for
the development of the Islamic financial market, and integration
within the sector is essential.


"We cannot rely on Europe and the United States to support the
development of Islamic finance. Therefore, we need to build our own
Islamic finance ecosystem," he said.


Hamid also emphasized the importance of political and
institutional support from countries, citing the Malaysian
experience as an example. According to him, the share of Islamic
finance in Malaysia, which was 5% a few decades ago, has now
increased to 40-50%.


In conclusion, he noted that the current level of Islamic
finance - especially in Central Asia and Azerbaijan, which is about
4% - indicates great development potential.


"In fact, the whole path is upwards. The main issue is
cross-country integration, the development of secondary markets and
standardization," the CEO pointed out.