UKIFC Advisory Board member Omar Shaikh was invited to participate in a prestigious panel on Islamic finance and impact investing at the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Istanbul International Centre for Private Sector in Development’s (IICPSD) 7th Bosphorus Summit which took place on 29th November 2016.
IICPSD is one of six UNDP global policy centres with a special mandate to focus on the role of the private sector in development. Recently UNDP IICPSD and IDB established the Global Islamic Finance and Impact Investing Platform (GIFIIP) to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Omar was able to share insights on Islamic finance and social impact while moderating the “Towards an Islamic Finance and Impact investing Ecosystem” panel session. The panel brought together the experience of practitioners and investors focused on scaling up Islamic finance for impact investing. The discussions sought to identify future directions for a global Islamic finance and impact investing business ecosystem in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. Speakers for the sessions were:
- Kıvanç Çubukçu, Project Manager, Kois Invest, Belgium
- Prof. Abdul Ghafar Ismail, Head of Division, Islamic Banking and Financial Economics & Islamic Research and Training Institute, Islamic Development Bank, KSA
- Hussam Abu Issa, Vice President, Salam International, Qatar
- Aamir Abdul Rehman, Managing Director, Fajr Capital, UAE
- Dr. Serdar Sümer, CEO, Aktif Bank, Turkey
- Babur Tolbayev, CEO, Mol Bulak, Kyrgyzstan
- Ufuk Uyan, General Manager, Kuveyt Türk, Turkey
The Honorary Opening Speech was delivered by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of the Republic of Turkey.