Bankers for issuance of multi-currency CPEC sukuk

Bankers have proposed issuance of multicurrency Sukuk for financing of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure projects. Addressing a roundtable session on "Islamic Finance Opportunities in CPEC and Beyond" conducted by IBA Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance on Friday at IBA City campus, Ghulam Abbasi, Director of Islamic Banking Department, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said that Islamic finance in Pakistan faces a major issue of liquidity development, for which CPEC is a golden opportunity especially for Sukuk.
He emphasised on building a platform where specific action points can be discussed and accordingly implemented. On behalf of SBP, he assured full support saying that the regulators will always support the new products, however it should be maximised as per the potential and an action plan needs to be properly developed. Dr Sulaiman Liu, Senior Partner from Al-Sadiq Consulting Limited spoke about Islamic financing options and opportunities that are necessary in order to give the Corridor the necessary push. Showing the overall geographical terrain, Dr Liu explained how this was an opportunity for Pakistan to increase international and local opportunities from other parts of the world, especially Honk Kong and Dubai.
He also mentioned a summit which will be held in China next year and would be an opportunity to develop ideas for Pak-China Islamic Banks, Takaful Companies and so on. He also mentioned how Hong Kong, even though not a Muslim country has been issuing Sukuk since 2014, and another in 2015, both of which are oversubscribed. They have been offering Islamic Financing since 2007.
Abdullah Han Senior Partner from Al-Sadiq, spoke about how the 30 million Muslim population of China was devoid of any Shariah-compliant alternative to banking in China due to regulatory challenges. He also pitched the idea of gaining a liquidity pool for Sukuk from Islamic capital markets like Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, Director of the Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance talked on the CPEC and the role of Islamic Financial Institutions. He also appreciated the work being done for the economic development in the region.
He remarked that sessions like these between Pakistan and Chinese industry partners should continue in future, so that we can have a practical action plan for gaining maximum benefit. He invited the Chinese guests to a further event to be hosted in January to discuss the Islamic Finance opportunities in CPEC. He said the idea of issuing multicurrency Sukuk to finance CPEC infrastructure projects was very attractive, with the added advantage of avoiding foreign currency risk for both Pakistani and Chinese investors.
Irfan Siddiqui, CEO of Meezan Bank, spoke about the corridor and how China has allocated $46 billion and asked for a further $6 billion to be invested. He also spoke about Gwadar and how it became extremely necessary to develop cohesion between the two nations.
Meanwhile, CEOs and heads of departments of a number of Financial Institutions, regulator and academic institutions including Nasir Ali Syed, CEO Pak Qatar Takaful Limited, Muhammad Shoaib Ibrahim CEO First Habib Modaraba, Ashraf Bava CEO Nael Capital, Adnan Fasih Group Head IBD of Habib Metropolitan Bank and others also attend the round table session.