Workshop of EIC Autumn 2018 Conference in Çeşme/Izmir

Izmir. This year’s EIC Autumn Workshop was hosted by EIC’s Turkish member, Turkish Contractors Association (TCA), on 05 October 2018 in Çeşme/Izmir. It revolved around the topic of Alternative Financing Options for Infrastructure Development in the Developing World with presentations by high-level experts from international, bilateral and commercial financing institutions and from leading European construction companies.

CHANCES AND CHALLENGES OF ISLAMIC FINANCE

The EIC workshop analysed the opportunities for Infrastructure PPP schemes in the developing world, with a specific focus on Africa’s urgent infrastructure development needs. Given the huge potential of Islamic Finance to support infrastructure development in emerging and developing countries, the experts on the panel in Çeşme discussed how to deploy Islamic project finance in a PPP context and how to amend regulatory frameworks to expand Islamic financing for such development. During the past two decades, the Islamic capital market and Shariah compliant assets have grown exponentially to nearly 2 trillion US$, invested in about 50 Muslim and non-Muslim countries around the globe.

TOP-CLASS SPEAKERS

In the first Workshop Session moderated by the Vice President of TCA and Turkish EIC Board Member, Selim Bora, the World Bank’s Senior Financial Sector Specialist Albert Amos introduced the alternative financing options for infrastructure development in emerging markets and developing countries. Mr. Başar Arioğlu, Chairman of Yapi Merkezi, familiarised the audience with the company’s experience in infrastructure financing in Sub-Saharan Africa. He declared himself in favour of a closer collaboration between Turkish and European contractors in Africa. Eiffage’s Direcgtor for Africa, Christian Combes, reported about the lessons learned of the Dakar-Diamniadio AIBD motorway project, the “autoroute de l’avenir”.

The second Workshop Session moderated by the Vice-President of TCA, Hüseyin Arslan, had Kuveyt Turk Bank’s First Deputy Director General Ahmet Albayrak helping participants in “Understanding Islamic Banking”, Mr. Noman Siddiqui, PPP Division Manager from Islamic Development Bank talked about “Mobilising Islamic Finance for Infrastructure Public Private Partnerships”, Mr. Jim Turnbull, Head of Debt Capital Markets, presented “The EBRD's Perspective on Islamic Finance” and Mr. Adnan Yildirim, General Manager of Türk Eximbank, offered “Future Prospects with Third Country ECAs on Infrastructure Projects”.

All Workshop Presentations can be found on the EIC Website.