Last week the Asia Pacific Financial Forum (APFF), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) held a conference on Developing a Work Program for the Islamic Infrastructure Investment Platform (I3P) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The event discussed four keys elements;
- Expanding the Role of Islamic Finance in Long Term Infrastructure Investment,
- Addressing Tax Policy Issues,
- The Development of Islamic Hedging Instruments and
- Developing Project Preparation Capacity and Pilot Projects.
Morag Baird, Senior Manager, leading practices & policy, moderated the session focussed on developing Project Preparation capacity and discussed the necessary ingredients of successful projects; continuity and coherence from upstream vision, strategic planning to downstream preparation and market awareness. Morag highlighted the tools available through Global Infrastructure Hub such as InfraCompass, PPP Risk Allocation and GI Hub Project Pipeline.
This was followed by presentation from the panel members Ms Puncharat Donrichan, Thailand MoF on their pipeline of priority PPP projects, Mr. Kunrat Wirasubrata, Director, IsDB Regional Office, Kuala Lumpur; Hj Minorhadi bin Hj Mirhassan, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD); and Nik Norishky Thani Bin Nik Hassan Thani, Executive Director, Country Head, Islamic Banking, UOB Malaysia. A key takeaway was the importance of familiarity as an integral factor in developing market capacity and the importance of establishing the legal framework.
The event was brought to a close by the APFF, who defined the next steps in mobilising capital in Islamic institutions to fund infrastructure with initial focus on priority issues in selected pathfinder economies.
