ALGIERS, Algeria, May 21. The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) hopes to see Azerbaijan issuing sukuk very soon as well, Mohammad Sharaf, Treasurer of the IsDB, said in response to Trend’s special correspondent at a panel discussion.
Speaking at the panel discussion on “Sovereign Sukuk: A Strategic Lever for National Financing,” held during the annual meetings of the IsDB Group in Algiers, Shara noted that Azerbaijan and a lot of other member countries are considering the issuance of Sukuk, and that there are three ways that they can support
"One of them is technical assistance. So we have the IDB Institute. We urge every member country that is probably pre-launching their Sukuk to access this technical assistance team. And actually, they are very highly qualified to advise. And that's also something that we can get into about setting the infrastructure. Because eventually, you cannot issue without the infrastructure related to the ecosystem of issuance of Sukuk.
Number two, we have our ICD, which is our private sector arm, which accesses GLM and helps a lot of the sovereign countries, advising them when they go to the market, what we call go-to-the-market preparation,” he said.
The third support pillar is direct investment by the bank itself, he noted.
“From our side, as investors, we always look at the opportunities to invest in Sukuk. We now have probably invested around $7 to $8 billion in terms of Sukuk, our investment, not our issuance,” Sharaf clarified.
The official reiterated the bank’s commitment to growing the market for Islamic financial instruments.
“We will invest as much as we can, considering the investment criteria that we always look at. And hopefully, we see Azerbaijan issuing sukuk very soon as well,” he concluded.
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