29.10.2013, London, United Kingdom - The President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali has said the world cannot be at peace when a third of its population is poor. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the World Islamic Economic Forum in London, the first to be held outside a Muslim majority country.

“The world, certainly cannot be at peace with itself, when about one-third of us are poor, without proper food and shelter, with high unemployment particularly among the youth and women, or at war”, Dr. Ali told the delegates at the conference taking place from 29-31 October 2013. He called for the reform of the global economy in order to rescue the world from the current and future economic turmoil.
According to Dr. Ali, for the world to make progress economically, three key factors must be considered, namely, reducing the economic gap, building trust, and promoting the role of the private sector for development. The IDB President suggested that, as a framework for reforming the global financial system and ensuring stability, Islamic finance would be an alternative.

“There is still more room for improvement”, said the IDB President, “I wish to offer the principles of Islamic finance, where the real-economy must not be delinked from the financial economy”.
“We need to systematically introduce socially responsible financing and investment. In our view it is not financial economy, but human economy that matters, in the long run”, the President told the gathering comprising Kings, Heads of States and Prime Ministers. Present at the opening ceremony were the Sultan of Brunei, the King of Jordan, the Presidents of Bangladesh, Kosovo and Afghanistan as well as the Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Pakistan and Morocco, and other key representatives from
IDB member countries.

The IDB President stated that the Islamic Development Bank is ready to offer its services for the development of the Islamic financial industry. He thanked the British Prime Minister David Cameron for the effort he made in bringing the conference to London, which is one of the leading financial centres in the world.