The value of Islamic finance contracts is estimated to reach $2.5tn by the end of 2019 and is expected to reach a further $3.8tn in 2022, an official of the Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (Qicca) has said.
Qicca board member Sheikh Thani bin Ali bin Saud al-Thani made the statement during the ‘7th East Africa International Arbitration Conference’ (EAIAC) held recently in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
Sheikh Thani, who is also Qatar’s representative in the ICC Court of Arbitration, also delivered a research paper on Islamic finance, types, nature, characteristics, and how to avoid disputes, as well as ways of settlement according to Islamic Shariah.
He also noted that there are other means that can have a positive impact on decreasing disputes, such as resolution and reconciliation. Sheikh Thani said Qatar has recently joined the ‘UN Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation’, also known as the ‘Singapore Convention on Mediation’.
During the sessions of the conference, Sheikh Thani informed attendees on the expertise of Qatar in Islamic finance, as well as Malaysia’s experiment, in addition to experiments of non-Islamic countries, such as Singapore.
He also stressed the importance of Islamic banking, which represented 75% of transactions, while Islamic instruments represented 15% and Islamic takaful contracts 10%.
The conference, which was held under the theme ‘Government Contracting and Investment Disputes: Lessons for States and Investors’ saw the participation of more than 250 attendees from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, and Ghana. Delegates included private investors, government departments, legal practitioners, judiciaries, and arbitration professionals. Expert speakers included attorney generals, government ministers, and regional and international arbitration professionals. On the sidelines of the conference, Sheikh Thani met with Kenya Minister of Justice Judge David Maraga and Kenya Law Association president Alin Wood.
Qicca general counsel Dr Minas Khatchadourian delivered a presentation on ‘Investment by Sovereign Wealth Funds and International Arbitration’ where he said the world’s sovereign wealth investments will reach $15tn by 2020, noting that this value represented 25% of the total value of assets that are managed worldwide.