Tunisia supports Islamic banking system

On Wednesday the Tunisian government signed three economic agreements that fall within the framework of supporting an Islamic banking system in the country. Tunisian Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Riadh Bettaieb oversaw the signing of the three agreements; two of which centred on the bank financing small and medium enterprises and the Islamic Corporation for Private Sector Development, while the third was with a Gulf United institution for Financial Services. The General Manager of the Bank of financing small and medium-sized enterprises Khalil Ammar confirmed that these agreements aimed at producing banking services with an Islamic character. Tunisia has issued Islamic checks for the first time in the new budget for 2013 totalling one billion dinars, with the aim of reforming the banking sector and diversifying its funding sources. Islamic checks are supposed to empower the Tunisian Treasury, enabling it to cope with a lack of liquidity and combat inflation, whilst also providing loan institutions with adequate resources in the long term.