The International Symposium on Financing for Development organized with the cooperation of the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) kicked off in Turkey’s Istanbul on Thursday.
The two-day symposium is being held under the theme of "Thinking Innovative Solutions to Persist Development Challenges."
The event will provide an important platform for discussing the problems and alternative solutions related to financing for development in OIC countries.
Director General of SESRIC Musa Kulaklıkaya spoke to YeniŞafak.com in an exclusive interview and evaluated the symposium, global developments and the tasks that befall Muslim nations in terms of financing development.
“If you look at OIC member countries, many are developing countries, and 22 among them are among the least-developed countries. All member countries have huge national resources, dynamic young population, but we still have many problems in development regarding human developments, regarding industrialization, and regarding matching employment needs,” he said.
“Although this young generation is well-educated, we need to be considerate to match market needs and the skills of young people.
“All these kinds of topics for sustaining financial development are going to be discussed during the two-day symposium with international organizations, national institutions, development banks, and technical assistance institutions, and we are going to exchange views and experiences among us,” Kulaklıkaya added.
SESRIC is a subsidiary organ of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and IsDB is one of the world's largest multilateral development banks that has been working for over 40 years to improve the lives of the communities that it serves by delivering impact at scale.
“There is a big gap between the richest and poorest OIC member countries. We have some tools in our values: this is solidarity and cooperation. Within the OIC, we have many institutions to foster and strengthen cooperation and create a base of solidarity.
“Philanthropic institutions in our world have increased recently. These institutions mainly deal with development problems in our member countries. These institutions can facilitate and enhance cooperation in our societies, from rich to poor countries.
“Another instrument is technical development agencies such as the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency. These institutions deal with sharing and exchanging experiences among member countries’ institutions. They transfer know-how and knowledge to each other,” he said.
Kulaklıkaya went on to state that the Muslim nations had huge potential, and that they have to implement it more diligently and take advantage of the tools at hand.
“Hence, to close these gaps we have many instruments. As I have mentioned before, we have technical cooperation agencies, our values as a tool of solidarity; for example, the potential of zakat and sadaka is huge. But we don’t use it. We have huge potential. The Islamic finance industry is growing year by year.
“As Muslim communities and Muslim countries, we have to use more and more Islamic finance instruments, not only Islamic banking, but also other instruments such as sukuk (Islamic bonds), such as waqf (Islamic endowments), such as sadaka (voluntary charity). We have to use all alternatives,” he said.
