The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC)  last week announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Borsa Istanbul, the Turkish capital’s “sole provider of trading, clearing, settlement, custody and registry services across a range of commodities, securities, and sukuk”. 

 The two entities are already have an  ongoing cooperation in creating dedicated delivery centres for precious metals in Istanbul and Dubai.

“The purpose of the  memorandum is to extend its current scope of collaboration, and explore how DMCC can offer guidance and best practice insight as the two entities work towards establishing a universal Shariah-compliant gold exchange for Islamic markets,” the DMCC said. “The latter, a topic of much debate and interest following a recent initiative launched by the World Gold Council (WGC) and the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), which means that gold can now be used as a commodity to back Sharia-based financial products.”

At the meeting held  between representatives of the two organisations, Ahmed Bin Sulayem, DMCC’s Executive Chairman, and Himmet KaradaÄŸ, Borsa Ä°stanbul’s Chairman of the Board, discussed their current and future cooperation.  

 “At DMCC, we are dedicated to collaborating with international market players, and working towards establishing and sharing best practices to improve and strengthen the global commodities trade,” said Ahmed Bin Sulayem. “That is why enhancing our partnership with Borsa Istanbul marks a natural evolution in how we seek to join and develop the global markets, and improve cross-border efficiencies in the precious metals trade.”

Commenting on the new MoU he said: “This Memorandum of Understanding also strengthens the trading relations between Turkey and the UAE, while reflecting DMCC’s commitment to developing Shariah-compliant market infrastructure to support the future growth of the Islamic economy.”

The DMCC said the new MoU builds upon DMCC’s current scope of collaboration with Borsa Istanbul, and “will seek to draw upon the capabilities of DMCC’s Free Zone, its DMCC Tradeflow platform and Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX)”.  In doing so, the collaboration aims to connect a wide range of financial institutions and physical traders to trade with confidence.

Turkey is one of the UAE’s largest trading partners:  last year’s  bilateral trade between the two states stood at US$ 6.7 billion. Moreover, the UAE is currently home to more than 10,000 Turkish citizens, and has more than 500 Turkish businesses operating in the country.

“In October, a senior UAE diplomatic delegation met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan to assess opportunities for further cooperation between the two countries, and to encourage joint investments,” the DMCC said referring to the process through which the current MoU was formulated.  

 Pic Cap:

Ahmed Bin Sulayem, DMCC Chairman  (left) and  Himmet KaradaÄŸ, Borsa Ä°stanbul’s Chairman of the Board   (right)