ISLAMABAD, April 23 (KUNA) -- An international conference on Islamic funds and investment began in Pakistan's southern Karachi port city on Monday with an objective to explore more opportunities for Islamic funds and investment.

The three-day conference is being attended by a large number of investors from Canada, UAE, Qatar, Malaysia, UK, USA and other gulf countries. The topics covered on the first day of the conference were, investment opportunities for Islamic funds, Shariah status and mechanism of Islamic investments and funds with global trends, standardization and brokerage and exchange rules and the Islamic exchange indices. The next two days have been allocated for training workshops on the allied topics on Islamic Investments, Marketing and Shariah guidelines.

Islamic finance is making healthy growth in Pakistan which now stands over 1000 Islamic banking branches from 50 Islamic banks and 13 conventional banks with Islamic finance operations. The organizer of the Conference, Zubair Mughal, in his inauguration address said that Islamic funds are rapidly gaining popularity in USD 1.3 trillion worth of global Islamic finance market gaining 6.1 percent share from over 650 funds spread all over the world, of which the highest 230 is in Saudi Arabia while Malaysia has 172, Cayman Island 59, Bahrain 46, Luxemburg 29, Dubai 16, Singapore 11 are the prominent players in the world.

He added that Islamic funds industry is growing with other aspects of Islamic finance including Mudarabah and Takaful businesses.