On August 18, 2021, the International IFPA (“IFPA”) participated in the online international conference «Ways to Enhance Cross Border Agri-Food Investments and Trade in OIC Countries»hosted by the Islamic Organisation for Food Security (“IOFS”).
The live-streamed virtual conference was inaugurated with keynote speeches from H.E. Mrs. Latifa El-Bouabdellaoui, Director General of the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade; H.E. Mr. Oussama Abdel Rahman Kaissi, Chief Executive Officer of the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit; H.E. Mr. Yousef Hasan Khalawi, Secretary General of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture; H.E. Mr. Yerlan Baidaulet, Director General of the Islamic Organization for Food Security.
The Director General and CEO of IFPA, H.E. Sheikh Bilal Khan presented in the panel session entitled “How to facilitate food supply chains between OIC countries?” along with other notable speakers such as Dr. Osman El Fiel, Advisor to the Director General of BADEA; Mr. Wadi Yousif, Head of Agriculture Value Chain Unit in BADEA; Dr. Mulhim Eltayeb, Adviser on the Agriculture sector to the Secretary General of ICCIA; Dr. Harun Celik, Senior Expert & Head of the ITFC Istanbul Hub; Mr. Yasser Alaqi, Manager in Asia Region Division of ICIEC; Mr. Alami Abdelaziz, Head of Marketing and Trade Promotion in ICDT.
H.E. Sheikh Bilal Khan provided an overview of the key value proposition of IFPA, OIC countries food supply chain system and remarked: “this is a critical moment demanding mobilizing collaborative efforts to enhance intra-OIC food safety. IFPA is aiming to embody the G2G mandate of IOFS into the B2B reality to research opportunities and challenges of OIC agri-food sector to provide sustainable solutions by virtue of supplychain, valuechain and blockchain, which will allow importers,exporters and other entities within the OIC agri-food markets to directly cooperate with each other”.
Some key agri-food investments and trade opportunities in food sectors of OIC countries were particularly discussed by Mr. William England, Advisor to the CEO of SALIC Group; Mr. Mubarak Rashid Alsahuti, Director Business Relations in Hassad Food; Mr. Suleiman Quraan, Head of Communications and Marketing Programs at Jordan Investment Commission; Mr. Ilyas Madimov, Head of a representative office in UAE, “Kazakh Invest” National Investment Promotion Agency; Mr. Azamat Isayev, Support Investors Department of Investment Promotion Agency of Uzbekistan.