KazanSummit2017 expands the horizons
Attention! Внимание! Игътибар! The KazanSummit2017 dates released, it will be held on 18-21 May. Though it would be more logical to say انتباه! Indeed, the summit is dedicated to cooperation between Russia and the countries of the Islamic world. The coming spring, the Republic of Tatarstan will once more host International Economic Summit of Russian Federation and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries which over the last years became the main site of economic cooperation of Russian regions and Islamic countries.
According to the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov was appointed Chairman of the Group of strategic vision «Russia — Islamic world». Tatarstan Investment Development Agency works on the preparation of KazanSummit2017 in the context of the Group. Leading international platform was created for discussion of cooperation issues and implementation of joint projects, as well as help for presentation of economic opportunities and investment potential of our country.
The amount of registered participants in KazanSummit set a record in May, 2016: the participants came from 51 countries of the world, thereby the Summit has proven itself as the largest and the most international event in the 8-year history. This event brought together a lot of governmental persons. Among high-ranking officials, Kazan was attended by Ambassadors from 14 countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. In addition, meaningful was the presence of the representatives of a row ministries and departments of Egypt, Gambia, Bahrain, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and UAE.
One of the most inspiring speeches of the Plenary session belonged to Youssef Al Ottaimeen, who was the Chief of the Office of the Director-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation at the time, and now the 3rd week already serves as the Head of OIC, replacing Iyad Madani. By the way, changes have not left aside the Islamic Development Bank, with it’s new Chief PhD Bandar Hajjar. The successors continue to implement policies of the previous leaders, placing the bet on partnership and mutually benefit cooperation with Russia.
High-ranking guests noted the qualitative level of holding the Summit, making sure that Tatarstan is a reliable site for investments. 15 different treaties were signed, which demonstrates the effectiveness of cooperation. So, laying the ground at the previous Summit, next spring Kazan will gather not only officials, but also a lot of business partners. The Head of Tatarstan Investment Development Agency Taliya Minullina counted on it, because Kazan Summit is a longterm project, and not only high ranking officials, but also and above all entrepreneurs have extensive plans on it. Dawood Al Shezawi, the CEO of Annual Investment Meeting (AIM), which is the largest annual investment forum held in Dubai, UAE, have already confirmed his participation. In his official letter to Taliya Minullina, the President of AIM stressed the importance of their participation in the Summit, since in conditions of rapidly developing world it is necessary to find new business-partners, share experiences, which will be a new impetus for generating unique ideas. Moreover, the management of World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) followed the invitation to KazanSummit2017 with pleasure and expressed a desire to be an official partner of such a large-scale event.
It is already clear that the next Summit would differ not only by the participants, but also by the program content. Thereby, KazanSummit2017 will touch upon such new spheres as: social entrepreneurship, environment, charity, corporate strategies and geoeconomics, cluster policy, tourism and even Islamic education.
Organizing Committee took into account the positive experience of the previous Summit and made decision to hold a row of the most effective sites on a yearly basis: The Conference of young diplomats of OIC countries; Business breakfast of PJSC Sberbank; Kazan OIC Youth Entrepreneurship Forum; Forum of development institutions.
Traditionally, the central theme of the Summit is Islamic Finance. How to make financing through partner banking more accessible and what difficulties banker and contributor can face? What modifications should be made in traditional banking system? What conditions and opportunities should the Russian side suggest to Islamic business now?
The answers to these and other questions and challenges of our time will be found at KazanSummit2017.
Registration of the participants and more detailed information is available at the official web-site www.kazansummit.com.