A seminar on Islamic finance, entitled “What opportunities for Italy?”, will be held at the foreign ministry in Rome today. The event is being organized by the Observatory for the Mediterranean in collaboration with the Strategic Forum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The sessions, moderated by Head of the Strategic Forum Pia Luisa Bianco, will be opened by Ambassador Giampiero Massolo, Secretary General of the foreign ministry and Chairman of the Strategic Committee for the protection of national economic interests abroad, and closed by Minister for Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini.
The intention of the seminar is to more deeply analyse the various aspects of Islamic finance, its underlying philosophy, instruments and products as well as the concrete experiences of Italian and international experts. There will be a specific focus also on Italian finance in the Mediterranean and on ethical finance from the Catholic perspective, a theme on which Monsignor Ettore Balestrero, Undersecretary of State for Relations with States of the Holy See will speak.
Islamic finance is a sector still relatively unknown in Italy but that is would be useful to understand more fully, since it represents a major opportunity to strengthen our relations with the Islamic world and with the Muslims residing in Italy. The seminar will also focus on themes requiring deeper analysis, especially concerning Islamic finance and conventional finance, the contribution by Islamic finance to the creation of a new global economic governance, and to the role that Italy could play in light of its geographic location and the intensity of immigrant influx from Islamic countries, many of enjoy intense economic and trade relations with Italy.