Turkey's Deputy PM responsible for the economy Ali Babacan, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, Governor of Turkish Central Bank Erdem Başçı and Vice Chairman of the NASDAQ OMX Group, Sandy Meyer Frucher gathered in Istanbul on Monday for the fifth Istanbul Finance Summit (IFS), a two day meeting to discuss innovation.Chairman of MRL Corporation and Independent Energy Expert, Cornelia Meyer, CEO of Bahrain-based International Investment Bank, Aabed Al-Zeera, Kazanah Basional Berhad's chairman, Mohd Izani Ghani and Kazakhistan Central Bank's vice-president Kuat Kozhakhmetov are among the attendees.Deputy PM Ali Babacan made statements over the current topics on Tuesday and stated that İstanbul Finance Center (IFC) is more than a real estate project along with 25 other transformation projects in İstanbul, and the action plan regarding IFC will be announced in the end of October.Babacan also commented on lease certificate issues recently started by private sector and stated his support for interest free finance and capital tools.Istanbul with its regulated markets and structure, is a candidate to become a global financial center, said Cornelia Meyer, renowned international economist on Monday at Istanbul Finance Summit (IFS)."Global financial centers should constantly improve their products and invest in innovation. İstanbul is a city ready to become a finance hub," Meyer said. "Strengths in culture and diversity of the city should be emphasized in order for Istanbul to become an effective financial center."The head of Borsa Istanbul, Ibrahim Turan said in his opening speech, "the issue of the next decade will be funding the investment in developing countries that is over $12.5 trillion. Seven of every ten companies will start up in developing countries until 2025 according to projections.""The issue of the next decade is how to find finance of this $12.5 trillion gap," Turan said.Turan emphasized that developing countries need to invest more in order to close the gap with the developed nations and to contribute to global progress."This summit will contribute to Istanbul becoming an international finance center," Professor Murat Yulek, chairman of the summit advisory board, said.The President of Turkish Exporters Assembly Mehmet Büyükekşi said that "innovative finance requires development of sustainable methods. We believe the importance of innovative financing in development same as innovation.""İstanbul, with the opportunities it presents, historical background and diversity, is ideal to become a financial center," added NASDAQ OMX vice-chairman Sandy Meyer Frucher. "İstanbul holds a strategic location between Europe and Asia making it regional financial center."Frucher also said "Turkey should benefit from its connection to the Islamic world by attracting Islamic financial instruments".Financial and economic experts around the world have gathered for a two-day summit in Istanbul in order to discuss innovative finance.The summit hosts leading representatives of global financial markets and senior executives of financial institutions from North America, Europe, the Gulf Region and East Asia.The main topics include investment banking, venture capital funds, angel investment and innovation finance, innovative tools and infrastructure financing methods and financial centers.The event is sponsored by the Turkish Central Bank, Borsa Istanbul and the Secretariat of the Treasury and Anadolu Agency as the global communications partner for the second year.