Almaty 3-4 September 2014.
DDCAP Managing Director, Stella Cox, recently travelled to Almaty for the occasion of the Kazakhstan Islamic Finance Conference. Organisers and sponsors of the event included The National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, The State Agricultural Sector Financial Support Fund, Zaman Bank, Takaful Insurance and Kazakhstan Ijara Company, in conjunction with The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the Association of National Development Finance Institutions in Member Countries of the IDB (ADFIMI) and Shariah Advisory Group.
Following an opening speech by Mr. Yerlan Baidaulet, IDB Board Member and Chairman of ADIF, Stella was invited to moderate the opening plenary panel session entitled “Concept of a Regional Islamic Finance Hub within the context of International Financial Centres”.
Speakers included Mr. Kairat Kelimbetov, Governor of the National Bank, Ms. Alderman Fiona Woolf, Lord Mayor of the City of London, Mr. Hussain Sharaf, Director Financial Institutions Supervision, Central Bank of Bahrain, Sheikh Bilal Khan, UK Catalyst UKTI and Co-Chairman of Dome Advisory, Mr. Nuri Birtek, General Secretary of ADFIMI and Mr. Medet Sartbayev, Chairman Centre for the development of Almaty City.
Following a press conference after the opening session, Day One of the event included panel discussions focused on the Islamic Capital Markets, Islamic Financial Legislation and Islamic Financial Training and Education.
Day Two of the event featured a Seminar on Sukuk, jointly sponsored by ADFIMI and FFSA. Speakers during the programme included Mr. Hasan Demirhan, Director IDB, Mr. Rizwan Khanji, Partner King and Spalding, Ms. Zeynep Boga, Senior Expert, Prime Ministry Undersecretariat of Treasury, Republic of Turkey and Mr. Muhammad Zahid Abdul Aziz from Malaysia.
In a panel session moderated by Mr. Nuri Birtek that considered the problems and prospects related to issuing sukuk in Kazakhstan, perspectives were offered by Mr. Yerlan Baidaulet, Mr. Maksat Kabashev, Chairman Kazakhstan Stock Exchange and Mr. Zhaslan Madiyev, Deputy Director, Department of Monetary Operations and Asset Management, The National Bank of Kazakhstan.
Over 160 delegates were in attendance through the course of the days.