Русский
The XVI International Economic Forum “Russia – the Islamic World: KazanForum” is taking place from May 13 to May 18 in Kazan. The main theme of the forum in 2025 is “Digitalization: a new reality and additional opportunities for expanding cooperation.” Several thousand people taking part representing over 100 countries.
To put it in a demographic context, it is estimated that 2,045,604,763 people around the world identify themselves as adherent to the Islamic faith, which represents over 25% of the world’s total population of 8,182,419,052. The religion of Islam is the official religious system in 26 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa.
The Kazan Expo International Exhibition Center is showcasing the achievements of various countries in different fields. “The forum is very important because it brings together leaders, experts, and representatives of public organizations from different countries. In recent years, it has turned into a landmark international event,” Vladimir Kuznetsov, director of the UN Information Center in Russia.
The Kazan forum, according to participants asked, is an important international gathering that has become a positive tradition, attracting more attention every year. Akila Omri, a professor from Tunisia, told a TASS correspondent that, for example, 20 years ago “Russia was more isolated from other countries, but in recent years it has not only been actively developing itself, but also strengthening ties with many countries,” so its international isolation is out of the question.
According to Hakan Coskun, who represents Turkish manufacturers at the exhibition, said “this shows that all companies are willing to cooperate with Russia, Turkey’s main neighbor and largest partner.” “This proves Russia is not an isolated country,” the businessman pointed out.
Many Russian regions are also participating and developing deeper cooperation with other countries. One such example is Donetsk People’s Republic’s Acting Industry and Trade Minister Natalia Kozina who said that their region has “great industrial potential in heavy industry, chemical industry, machine building, light industry, furniture industry, food industry, as well as agriculture.” She went on to say“I am sure that this platform is very important for us because we can not only find partners here, but also investors in the DPR.”
From the financial side, and according to Alexey Yakovlev, Director of the Financial Policy Department of the Russian Ministry of Finance, said at the KazanForum. “Partnership financing, Islamic banking, is one of the tools, part of the infrastructure that will allow us to continue building this cooperation and deepen it. It’s an additional tool that, in our view, has yet to be fully tapped. Our task now is to move toward the practical implementation of such cooperation, using mechanisms that have already proven effective in other countries,” He went on to say that Islamic banking, can be a useful tool for building cooperation with other countries, and should be utilized more for such purposes.
Islamic banking, or partnership banking are somewhat similar in their approach to financing. Conventional Banks treat money as a commodity and lend it against interest as its compensation. Islamic Banks must be interest free. Islamic banking products are usually asset backed and involves trading of assets, renting of assets and shared participation on a profit & loss basis. A further advantage is that it doesn’t need SWIFT to work efficiently and well.
Further Reading
Russia Hosts Foreign Ambassadors of the Islamic Organisation for Cooperation
