Baku, Azerbaijan, June 3
By Azad Hasanli, Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) is ready to provide advisory services for Azerbaijan for industrial and special economic zones and Islamic capital markets development, Khaled Mohammed Al-Aboodi, CEO and general manager at the ICD, told Trend.
Al-Aboodi said the ICD is willing to cooperate with Azerbaijan in all areas related to the private sector.
Al-Aboodi was in Baku May 31 on a one-day visit, and the corporation's mission will hold meetings during this week.
As he noted, the visit's main aim is to follow up on several initiatives of the government and see how ICD can assist in mobilizing funding through private sector initiatives.
"We also met with several private sector entities to explore financing opportunities," he said.
"ICD has a program dedicated to the development and implementation of free trade zones (FTZ)," said Al-Aboodi. "We have successfully raised donor funding for the development and planned implementation of such initiatives in many member countries to help accelerate the rate at which foreign direct investment is done."
ICD stands ready to assist Azerbaijan, said Al-Aboodi, adding the economic and developmental impact of these initiatives is tremendous.
He noted also that the ICD's intervention includes the full spectrum of design of the framework, implementation support, and also fundraising for technical studies and external consulting.
"ICD will liaise with Azerbaijan to provide assistance through knowledge sharing via the Reverse Linkage program of the Islamic Development Bank Group, to share similar experiences of other member countries in similar programs, as well as providing assistance to bring foreign direct investments into the country," explained Al-Aboodi.
He also said the ICD has a dedicated advisory department which runs the Sukuk [Islamic bonds] and Capital Markets program, designed to assist the governments and private sectors to raise funding to finance private and public sector projects.
"ICD has successfully advised several governments to complete the Sukuk issuances for countries in Africa and the Arab region," Al-Aboodi added.
The ICD has been operating in Azerbaijan since 2003. ICD finances mainly small and medium enterprises in the country. The corporation is the founder of the Ansar Leasing and co-founder of the Caspian International Investment Company.
The ICD is a multilateral development financial institution and is a part of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group.