As most of the emerging countries are homogenously or partially Muslim countries, a leading financial expert has advised investors and business managers in the West to adopt sharia-based Halal economic system in Muslim countries, particularly in Asia.
"Put your Islamic spectacles on as most of the emerging countries are predominantly Muslim," a European financial expert said on Saturday while advising economic and financial professionals and advisers in the West, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
According to Goldman Sachs investment bank, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and Vietnam are the Next-11 emerging countries which are likely to challenge developed economies in the ongoing millennium.
With the exception of Korea, Mexico and Vietnam, the N-11 are all predominantly Islamic markets or at least markets with a substantial Muslim population, he said.
"In 2030, a third of World's population will be Muslim, 65 per cent of the Muslims are Asians," said Professor Laurent Marliere, chief executive of the Brussels-based ISFIN (Islamic finance lawyers firm and leading advisers to Islamic markets.)
ISFN is an entrepreneurial project dedicated to facilitating the exchange of business and legal consultancy in the Islamic world.
Asia, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Africa are the real areas of growth, Prof Marliere told KUNA in a interview, released in its wire on Saturday.
"These regions will not only experience growth locally, they now have (also) huge amount of liquidities to invest," KUNA quoted Prof Marliere as saying.
The most developed hubs like Dubai , Abu Dhabi , Doha or Kuala Lumpur are located in GCC and Asia which tend to attract market shares from the West, he said.
Meanwhile Africa is currently going through an important process of Islamisation by developing an "Islamic capacity" also called a "Halal capacity, explained the Belgian professor of marketing.
"Professionals and advisers have not yet anticipated what is becoming the world's fastest growing area of world industry. The Halal industry is there to stay. The investment power from the Muslim world, boosted by the high energy prices, is there to stay," said Prof Marliere.
"Law, accounting and auditor firms and financial advisers will realise this when their clients will ask them to operate with that Islamic capacity," he said during the interview.
The firms which will fail to understand the trends will lose market to more innovative firms, said Prof Marliere.
"The real challenge when dealing with the Muslim world or when dealing with the Western world is not the technicality, it is the cultural gap," he underlined.
"In 28 months of existence, we have become the world leader in the supply of legal advice to the Halal industry. We are now expanding to new sectors: Audit Accounting, Banking, Wealth, Real Estate," said Prof Marliere explaining the performance of ISFIN.
Islamic finance is the fastest growing sector in the financial services industry, having grown by over 20 per cent annually in recent years, and estimates of current global Islamic banking assets under management range up to $1 trillion, said the ISFIN.
