HispanicBusiness

London will host next year's World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), the first European and the first non-Muslim ity to host the annual Islamic business conference, organizers said Thursday.

"We are excited to bring the World Islamic Economic Forum to London," Musa Hitam, chairman of the WIEF Foundation, said at the end of the three-day 8th World Islamic Economic forum held in the southern Malaysian state of Johor.

"It is a reflection of the forum's increasing significance as a global platform which brings together Muslim and non-Muslim communities through business," he added.

WIEF, which started in 2003 as the Organization of Islamic Conference Business Forum, is aimed at promoting business opportunities in the Islamic world.

Alan Duncan, Britain's Minister of State for International Development, said the hosting of the next WIEF would be a great opportunity for London to showcase itself as "one of the world's most open, multicultural, multifaith cities."

The 8th WIEF gathered more than 1,500 businessmen, government leaders and representatives as well as economists and scholars from 62 predominantly Muslim countries.