Proceedings of the 12th Meeting of the COMCEC
Financial Cooperation Working Group
17
Comment: There is a need for collaboration between different stakeholders so that parties can
learn from each other. Also, there is need for standardization and rule of law to increase
investments in infrastructure projects.
Answer: Prof. Ahmed agreed that there is need for collaboration of different stakeholders in
particular because Islamic infrastructure financing in new and complex. In this regards,
multilateral development organizations such as IDB and COMCEC can play an important role of
bring together stakeholders to exchange ideas and experiences. The same applies to
standardization of laws and in particular the Shariah contracts. World Bank and Asian
Development Bank play an important role in providing templates and advise on laws that are
relevant for development. The same can be done by multilateral development organizations
for contacts used in Islamic project finance.
Comment: There is a need to use alternative capital market instruments beyond sukuk such as
infrastructure funds, yield based bonds.
Answer: Prof. Ahmed agreed with the suggestion and mentioned that there are many
innovations taking place in the conventional sector that can be adapted to Islamic finance.
Among others, impact investment and blended finance that combines non-profit and for-profit
funds can be used to finance social infrastructure.
Question: In case of Sudan, what are the types of instruments used for infrastructure projects?
Answer: Prof. Ahmed mentioned that the government of Sudan uses different instruments to
raise funds for both budget and infrastructure projects. Most of these instruments are called
certificates instead of sukuk. Government Investment Certificates (Sarh) are used to raise
funds for financing infrastructure projects.