Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 8
By Fakhri Vakilov-Trend:
Uzbekistan intends to allow the country's companies for the first time to issue bonds under Sharia law (sukuk bonds) in order to expand opportunities for market participants to attract additional capital, Trend reports citing IA Kun.uz.
“I hope that the Islamic bonds will be issued by the middle of next year,” said Atabek Nazirov, director of the Capital Market Development Agency.
According to him, the agency expects the arrival of the mission of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), with the support of which this product will be introduced in the market of Uzbekistan.
“The ADB mission will arrive next month. They will develop a product for us and will help determine what changes to the law we must make so that it is legally available,” Nazirov said.
He expressed confidence that the sukuk (the Islamic equivalent of a bond) will be very popular in Uzbekistan.
In 2018, the Ministry of Finance developed a draft presidential decree on measures to create the infrastructure of Islamic banking and finance in Uzbekistan, which was never adopted. The document provided for the development of a draft decision of the president on the establishment of the Islamic Development Bank of Uzbekistan (IBRU).
It was planned that IBRU will provide a wide range of standard retail services, including export-import financing, housing finance, commercial real estate financing, leasing services (Ijarah), insurance (takaful), as well as securities market services (sukuk) through structural units .
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