Islamic Development Bank gives Australia & New Zealand a Guernsey

The Islamic Development Bank, headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has just approved US$165 million for development projects that include Australia and New Zealand in the mix.

The new finances cover new development projects in Turkey, Bangladesh and Mali in addition to T.A. Grants for Muslim communities in Australia, Ethiopia, Montenegro, New Zealand, France and Kosovo.

The Australian grant consists of US$350,000 for the expansion of Islamic School of Brisbane in Brisbane while the Kiwi funding consists of US$290,000 for the construction of Waikato Islamic School in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Australia gets serious about Islamic finance

As a long term Australian resident - and medium-term Islamic finance specialist - I thought that it was time that there was a blog devoted exclusively to the subject of Islamic finance in Australia (OK - and New Zealand too).

I have been active in the Islamic finance sphere since 2002 when I conceived, launched, and published Islamic Finance Weekly for Euromoney in London.

I then conceived, launched and published Islamic Business & Finance as well as Sukuk Insider in the UAE.

More recently I started a dedicated Islamic finance research and media entity in the UAE called Yasaar Media (www.yasaarmedia.com).