Leading players in the international takaful industry will take part in the 8th Annual World Takaful Conference (WTC 2013) to be held from April 15 to 16 at the Dusit Thani, Dubai.

The event, co-located with the third Annual Middle East Islamic Finance and Investment Conference (MEIFIC 2013), will feature high-profile discussions that will focus on 'sustaining growth and boosting profitability' in the global takaful industry.

"The global takaful industry continued to show double-digit growth last year, with recent reports indicating an exciting, if slightly slowing, average growth rate of around 19 per cent for global takaful contributions," said conference chief executive David McLean.

"As the industry becomes ever more competitive, together with ongoing weaknesses in the global economic environment, more and more operators are concerned about how they can overcome the challenge of maintaining the exciting growth rate of the past few years while also becoming increasingly focused on the imperative of boosting profitability from their core business."

"With global takaful contributions currently less than 1pc of the total insurance premium universe there is no doubt that the future of the global takaful industry remains bright and recent research further highlights that takaful contributions will continue to grow faster than the rate of premium growth in the global conventional insurance industry," he said.

"The leading takaful operators are now rapidly positioning themselves to capitalise on the new growth opportunities emerging from high-potential segments such as family takaful, manage the challenges of an increasingly competitive global takaful market, drive operational efficiencies in their business, and successfully shift to sound underwriting profitability," he added.-TradeArabia News Service