Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 11
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) is providing Uzbekistan with $500 million of trade financing to support strategically important sectors, including agriculture, which remains a crucial sector in Uzbekistan, particularly in terms of employment in villages and remote areas Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO of ITFC told Trend in an interview.
He said that the ITFC recognizes that Uzbekistan has significant natural resources that leave it very well placed for investment and economic growth.
“Uzbekistan is rich in hydrocarbon resources, and about 60 percent of its territory possesses potential oil and gas reserves. Uzbekistan ranks 3-rd among the countries of the CIS and 15-th in the world in terms of annual natural gas production. Uzbekistan also has significant, gold and cotton production and export capacity, which the ITFC believes has major export growth potential,” Sonbol said.
The nature of the Uzbek regulatory framework is also maturing, he stressed, including in Islamic financing.
“Whie there are currently no Islamic banking regulations in Uzbekistan, around ten Uzbek banks are attracting lines of financing from Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) under the Wakala/Murabaha structure and five banks from the ITFC. Uzbekistan has recently decided to introduce Islamic finance regulations and will be establishing new Islamic finance institutions,” Sonbol noted.
He added that Uzbekistan operates a relatively nuanced trade and tariff policy, imposing tariffs on the import of goods that are produced internally alongside a zero-tariff schedule for items that are needed but aren’t produced in Uzbekistan– goods such as textile equipment and machinery for spare parts.
"This enables the government to protect jobs in important industry sectors and keep prices as low as possible for business-critical imports," he said.
ITFC is a global leader in Islamic Trade Finance Solutions in member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It was created with the purpose of advancing trade to improve the economic condition and livelihood of people across the Islamic world, act as a catalyst for intra-regional trade between regions and strengthen trade and diplomatic ties between OIC member countries.
---
Follow author on Twitter:@vakilovfaxri
