Kazakhstan, Astana, Oct. 1 / Trend D. Mukhtarov /
Astana is hosting a two-day conference on Islamic finance KIFC 2012 today, the Kazakh Development Bank company spokesperson said today.
The conference is devoted to discussions on Islamic securities as a tool of attracting the direct investments, features of regulating the Islamic insurance Takaful, Islamic financial products and small and medium business.
"The global sukuk market has grown by an average of 21 per cent over the past five years and its volume in 2011 reached $1 trillion," deputy chairman of Kazakh Development Bank, Zhaslan Madiyev said.
Madiyev spoke about the results and peculiarities of the first experiment of placing Islamic sukuk bonds in Kazakh and Malaysian markets. As is known, the Kazakh Development Bank became the first emitter in the post-Soviet area in July 2012 to successfully place al-Murabaha sukuk bonds.
"Even at the later stage of the deal, we were faced with a number of legal and regulatory constraints," he said. "For example, there were difficulties in using the KASE listing requirements, registering the securities by the central depository and setting an official rate for the Malaysian ringgit."
About 200 delegates are attending the conference. Among them are the representatives of ministries and departments of the Kazakh Republic and Kazakh international development and financial institutions.
Investment Conference IDB Day will be held with the official presentation of the Country Partnership Strategy between Kazakhstan and the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB) during KIFC 2012 on Oct. 2, 2012. This investment conference will be devoted to the process of becoming familiar with IDB's institutions' activity in Kazakhstan.