ALGIERS, Algeria, May 20. The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will give a significant support to Azerbaijan’s investment agenda, Chairman of the EDB Management Board Nikolai Podguzov said in an exclusive interview with Trend on the sidelines of the Islamic Development Bank Group’s (IsDB) Annual Meetings in Algiers.
He pointed out that Azerbaijan is very important for the Eurasian region.
“The country has a big infrastructure development agenda.
Recently, I met with ministers of finance, economy, members of
government in Baku, and discussed a lot of potential projects.
Azerbaijan is going to diversify its economy from oil and gas. I
know about huge plans of Azerbaijani government to develop Baku as
one of the probably most beautiful cities in the Caucasus. We
discussed a lot of potential
infrastructure projects with the minister of digital development
and transport of Azerbaijan.
Definitely, Islamic finance could support this investment agenda and being able to implement projects in Islamic finance way, I think we will give significant support to Azerbaijan in its investment agenda,” he said.
Priorities of cooperation with the IsDB
Podguzov pointed out that the Islamic Development Bank is a big partner of Eurasian Development Bank.
“For Eurasian Development Bank, as an international financial organization which operates in Central Asia, it is very important to have a partner with whom we can develop Islamic finance in the region. And Islamic Development Bank is such a partner. We are setting up Islamic finance window in Eurasian Development Bank with the help of Islamic Development Bank. Here I'm taking part at the main event, being invited by President of Islamic Development Bank. I talked today about potential collaboration between banks, institutes, Islamic finance institutes and postal services to provide better access of population to Islamic finance products. I talked about artificial intelligence and AI instruments which will help to provide better quality of Islamic finance products. I think that these topics are of great demand for the population in Central Asia,” he explained.
Podguzov noted that another potential field of cooperation is to bring together economic interests of Central Asian countries as well as GCC countries, to develop cooperation between the countries of Central Asia and South Africa.
EDB support to Central Asia in developing Islamic finance
As for the support of the Eurasian Development Bank to Central Asian Countries in harmonizing the Islamic finance regulations across the region, Podguzov pointed out that everything comes from potential demand.
“The demand for investments is huge in Central Asia, as we are developing infrastructure, connectivity, improving food security, security of the region and developing energy sustainable infrastructure in the region. It requires a lot of investments and the potential demand for Islamic finance investments could be as high as $10 billion within next few years. That is why it is important to develop proper instruments.
Kazakhstan, where the headquarters of Eurasian Development Bank is located, is a member of Islamic Development Bank and the government is very interested in developing Islamic finance in the country. With the help of Eurasian Development Bank, as well as the Islamic Development Bank, we'll be able to introduce Islamic finance products for companies and population in Kazakhstan,” he said.
Issuing Sukuk bonds in Central Asia
Podguzov expressed hope that the EDB will play an important part in developing Islamic finance bond market.
“We're going to print Sukuk bond as soon as this year. So that is probably our agenda in Central Asia, but with the support of Islamic Development Bank.
Sukuk is quite a new product in terms of finance projects. We are not able to print Sukuk bond without having a strong pipeline of Islamic finance projects. So, first of all, we are elaborating a methodology which could set up specific project finance in Islamic way. We need to accumulate project pipeline in the region and then having the accumulated this pipeline, we will be able to print Sukuk bonds. We are now working on both directions and hopefully, the debut pilot deal of 10-15 million dollars Sukuk bond will be issued this year,” he concluded.