pARIS -- Secretary General of the Franco Arabe Chamber of Commerce Dr. Saleh Al-Tayyar said here Friday that the French economy would be a major pillar of the Islamic finance system.

Speaking to KUNA, Al-Tayyar said senior French officials were convinced that Islamic finance was a successful way to finance and attract foreign investments.

France had all the abilities and tools to enter the Islamic finance field, he stressed, adding that the European country's political relations with the Arab world were excellent.

try{document.write(_banner_zone('zone9339')); }catch(e){} He noted that USD 650 billion around the world are managed by Islamic financial portfolios.

He said that the chamber was leading in marketing Islamic finance, as it held the first forum on Islamic finance in France in 2006.

The chamber established, in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB ), the French Institute for Islamic Finance (FIIF) to stress the concept of Islamic finance in France, adding that the institute held more than 10 training courses in one year, he pointed out.

Al-Tayyar said that France could implement the Islamic financial system on its investments in African countries.

He noted that Islamic investors could benefit from the large number of Muslims in France, which reached five million, through providing loans that are compatible with the Islamic finance, He emphasized that French fears of the Islamic financial system were a result of relating the system to Islamophobia and to fearing it would threaten the sectarian system of the European country.

The concerns are baseless as a sectarian country would not be an obstacle to the system which is based on partnership, he highlighted.

He said he expects that the system would be implemented in France during the first half of 2010, pointing out that there will be three licenses for opening panches of Islamic banks in France.

By Talal Al-Kandari

© KUNA (Kuwait News Agency) 2010