Islamic finance has emerged relatively unscathed from the global economic crisis but there is a need for tighter regulations and higher standards.
The Shariah finance industry, which abides by religious laws that prohibit the payment and collection of interest, is worth an estimated US$800-950 billion (Dh2.9 trillion-Dh3.4 trillion) and expanding rapidly in the Muslim world and in the West.
Moody's Investors Service said earlier this month that the sector has a market potential of US$5 trillion.
However, the global economic turmoil, which felled some mainstream banking institutions, has highlighted the need for the industry to shore up areas where it may be on shaky ground.
Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, Chief Executive of CIMB Islamic, a pioneer Islamic bank in Malaysia, said: "A lack of framework regulations are the single biggest threat to Islamic finance growth today."
In Islamic finance, the customer and the institution share the risk of any investment and also divide any profits between them.
"There's nothing wrong with the Shariah structure, it's the law of the land and the regulatory framework that needs to be sorted out to ensure an Islamic financial transaction can be done effectively," Badlisyah said.
Malaysia has the world's largest market in Islamic bonds, known as ‘sukuk’, but it is facing rising competition from Singapore and European banking centres.
Badlisyah said Malaysia has got it right, with laws governing the types of Islamic products issued and a national Shariah council whose financial edicts are enforced throughout the industry. However, Islamic financial advisers said most countries offering Shariah-compliant products have problems with basic elements such as having enough scholars to form effective councils to guide financial dealings.
"There is fundamentally a shortage of trained Shariah scholars for the field and a means to properly integrate their views into law," said Abdulkader Thomas who runs Shape, a US-based Shariah financial structuring consultancy.
Criticism has also emerged that some Islamic products on offer have strayed from their roots, and increasingly mimic conventional profit-driven financial instruments.
As well as the laws which ban interest, Islamic financial transactions must be backed by real assets – not, for instance, the wobbly repackaged sub-prime mortgages. Risks are shared between the bank and depositor so there is an incentive for institutions to ensure the deal is sound.
"It's going back to basics but it's very difficult," said the International Monetary Fund's former executive director Professor Abbas Mirakhor.
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Business and Management
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Skid order awarded for power plant expansion 
Colfax Corporation, a global leader in fluid-handling solutions for critical applications, announced its Allweiler AG business unit will deliver a US$1.4mn fuel injection skid order through Siemens AG for use in gas turbines in Iraq. The skids will be used for power plant expansions in Kirkuk as well as new plants being built in Baiji and Baghdad. The first two skids will be completed in early 2011. The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity has ordered an additional five and has options to purchase three more.
A Korean-led consortium plans to launch a US$20 billion project in December to build four nuclear reactors in the UAE, the state-run power supplier said recently. Last December, the consortium led by state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) won the landmark deal, the first international contract for the Asian nation's nuclear industry.
In spite of a substantial fall off in world exports of diesel generating sets up to 2000 kVA, the Middle East, comparatively, showed a more modest fall. Worldwide export figures show a US$2.5bn or 28.7 per cent fall compared to a 14.6 per cent fall in the Middle East (accounting for some US$237mn). According to Customs & Excise official statistics, exports from the UK to the Middle East fell by US$115mn (19 per cent) although their sales still outrank the rest of Europe. Surprisingly, the rest of Europe showed an increase in exports against the previous year by a handy US$52mn. By comparison, the US had a large fall of approximately US$105mn, China fell by US$43mn and Japan by US$26mn.
Two new gas turbines with a total production capacity of 400 MW will be commissioned by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) before the end of the current year, according to DEWA managing director and CEO, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer. The utility will also commission two desalination units with a total production capacity of 160,000 litres of water, in addition to four auxiliary boilers according to Al Tayer. The units of power generation and water desalination project (Station M) have come into service this year to raise the production capacity of both electricity and desalinated water of DEWA.
A senior Kuwait government official has said that the quarterly report over its development plan would be referred to the cabinet in its next meeting ahead of preparing the bi-annual report next October.
Saudi Electricity has posted a 50 per cent rise in second-quarter net profit thanks to lower costs and higher revenues with further gains expected after a rise in power tariffs for some users. The Gulf's largest utility by market value made US$285.3mn in the three months to the end of June compared with US$191mn riyals a year earlier, according to a statement to the Saudi bourse. This figure is 13 per cent higher than analysts' forecasts.
Ali Akbar Salehi, responsible for managing Iran's atomic energy policy, has confirmed the launch of the Islamic republic's first nuclear power plant. The plan was initially announced by Russia which has helped build the facility.
Siemens Energy has secured a US$130mn order to supply gas turbine packages to Saudi Arabia. The components are to be installed in the Hail Extension II and Al Qurayat Expansion II power plants. The purchasers are the Alfanar Construction Company and Saudi Services for Electromechanic Works (SSEM) respectively and they will perform the project on a turnkey basis for the Saudi Electric Company (SEC) utility. Delivery of the components is scheduled for 2010 and 2011.
Power and automation technology group, ABB, has won an order worth US$89mn from the Saudi Electricity Company to build a new substation to ensure reliable power supplies for the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh. The substation will be close to the financial centre and feed four smaller substations situated within the district. The project is expected to be completed in around 22 months.
Air blowers using internal compression instead of external compression can set a new standard for energy efficiency in the low-pressure market according to a new technical whitepaper from Atlas Copco’s oil-free air division. The whitepaper explains the differences between screw technology and the traditional ‘Roots’ type lobe technology and says that screw technology, which is used in Atlas Copco's ZS screw blowers, is on average 30 per cent more energy efficient. The manufacturer recently launched its full range of ZS screw blowers that are designed to improve energy efficiency for low-pressure applications and industries such as wastewater treatment and pneumatic conveying.
Plans for the zero-carbon Masdar City project are to be revised, with details of the amended master plan to be announced “imminently” according to Masdar's head of supply-chain management, Richard Reynolds. “We’ll finalise the revised Masdar plan fairly imminently, in the next two to three weeks,” Reynolds was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. “We’d only built part of it, so it made sense to stop and revisit.”
Saudi Arabia has taken the first step towards becoming energy efficient by holding its first ever public stakeholder meeting, the initial step in certifying an energy efficiency project under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), in Jeddah recently.
Power generation equipment and services supplier, Alstom, has announced the strengthening of its renewables portfolio through a partnership with BrightSource Energy Inc. Alstom's move into the high-growth solar energy market comes in the form of an investment of up to US$55mn in BrightSource Energy Inc, with an equity stake that positions Alstom as one of the main shareholders in the company. 
A high level delegation representing the energy sector in Dubai has visited China to look at the latest global practices in the area of sustainable energy and the diversification of its sources. The delegation exchanged knowledge on the usage of conventional power plant technologies (using ultra super critical power plant-coal and synthetic gas) to generate electricity and produce desalinated water.
The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), a fund established by the government to aid the economic development of developing nations, has granted a loan to Bahrain worth US$50mn. The loan will be used to erect two electric transmission lines, of 220KV and 66KV each, to meet the increasing demand for electric power.
Abu Dhabi Transmission and Despatch (Transco) has placed an order with Siemens Energy to supply transformer substations and switchgear for the UAE power distribution network expansion project. The US$184mn order includes the turnkey supply of three 132/11 kV transformer substations and two 132/22 kV substations.
Power and automation technology group, ABB, has signed a service contract with the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) to provide maintenance for equipment and systems at the Gulf Interconnection Grid's newly constructed substations. The two-year contract is worth US$8.3mn and will aim to optimise the grid's reliability through regular maintenance and provide technical and emergency assistance when required.
Abu Dhabi is considering a proposal to use solar energy equipment on rooftops in the city to generate about 500MW of power, according to the executive director at the city's Executive Affairs Authority, David Scott.
Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable and alternative energy technologies and solutions initiative, has appointed the bidding consortium of Total and Abengoa Solar as a partner to own, build and operate Shams 1, the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant (CSP). One of Masdar’s flagship projects and the first plant of its kind in the Middle East, Shams 1 will directly contribute towards Abu Dhabi’s target of achieving 7 per cent renewable energy power generation capacity by the year 2020.
Oman has awarded France's GDF Suez a US$1.7 billion contract to build two power plants. A tender board official told Reuters, “GDF Suez has signed a 15-year contract with the government in a BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) model for which the company will spend 700 million rials."
An executive from state oil company Saudi Aramco has said that renewable sources could account for up to 10 per cent of Saudi Arabia's power output by 2020 with prices coming down and a regulatory framework in place.
ABB, THE LEADING power and automation technology group, has won an order worth US$38mn from the Saudi Electricity Company, Saudi Arabia’s national power transmission and distribution utility, to improve the efficiency of 22 power distribution substations.
THE MIDDLE EAST has the opportunity to become a boom centre for solar energy in the next 10 years, according to AT Kearney.
THE INCANDESCENT LIGHT bulb is disappearing from stores. It has long been superseded by a new generation of light sources. In tomorrow’s multimedia society colour displays the size of an apartment will generate crystal-clear images, and entire sports stadiums will be lit by high-performance lamps.
Technical Review Middle East - Issue Three 2009 Power 60 IN THE PRESENT economic climate the fact that renewable energy can cut pollution levels may not be enough. As Phil Desmond discovers, some recent innovations in the field of cellular communications are being promoted not just as being better for the environment than conventional fuels but better for business too.
ARAMCO’S “FAIR” PRICE of US$75 a barrel has not yet been achieved but the giant Saudi economy is still surging ahead, prioritising the creation of new homes and diversified jobs in industry, social and other services to satisfy the needs of a 26mn young and wealthy population which grows at two per cent-plus every year. This means continued rapid progress on the development of the new Economic Cities, further and accelerated petrochemical and light industrial diversification, and the Middle East’s largest by far programme of dedicated passenger- and freightline rail construction. 
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November 2010
NOVEMBER 20101-4 GCC Power DOHA
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1-4 Adipec 2010 ABU DHABI
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2-6 Jordan Motorshow AMMAN
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21-24 The Big 5 DUBAI
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28-30 Roadex/Railex ABU DHABI
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OCTOBER 20103-6 Saudi Build RIYADH
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27-30 Project Iraq ERBIL
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January 2011
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Arabplast 2011, Dubai
16-18 January
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17-19 January
World Future Energy Summit, Abu Dhabi
February 2011
8-10 Feb
Middle East Electricity, Dubai
8-10 Feb
Cabsat Middle East, Dubai
8-10 Feb
Gulf Industry Fair, Manama
28 Feb-3 March
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March 2011
1-3 March
Middle East Coatings, Cairo
7-9 March
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22-26 March
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April 2011
4-7 April
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6-8 April
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6-9 April
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10-13 April
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17-20 April
Cityscape Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi
26-28 April
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May 2011
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3-6 May
Arabian Travel Market, Dubai
17-19 May
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23-25 May
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30 May-2 June
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31 May-2 June
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June 2011
11-13 June
Cityscape Jeddah, Jeddah
October 2011
3-5 October
Power Generation & Water M.E., Abu Dhabi
10-13 October
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16-18 October
MEMEX 2011, Abu Dhabi
Powergen Middle East, Doha
The Big 5 2011, DubaiNovember 2011
21-24 NovemberSaudi PPPP, Riyadh