June 24 2021, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan – International Islamic Food Processing Association (“IFPA”) and JSC “National Company Kazakh Invest” (“Kazakh Invest”) agreed to build cooperation by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) on the promotion of agri-food projects with investments that relate to the use of Islamic finance and investments in the wider market of the Republic of Kazakhstan. This MoU was signed by H.E. Sheikh Bilal Khan, Director General and CEO of IFPA, and Mr. Meirzhan Yussupov, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Kazakh Invest.
Kazakh Invest is the primary government body to attract and facilitate inward investments and its Board of Directors is headed by the Prime Minister, H.E. Askar Mamin. Its mandate is to strengthen the regulation, supervision and practices of foreign investment projects in priority sectors of the economy of Kazakhstan.
The mission of IFPA is to enable and promote intra-OIC trade and investment between agri-food private sector businesses across the entire ecosystem and food supply chain in the OIC member states including Kazakhstan and the markets of GCC countries.
Kazakh Invest and IFPA have a shared objective of facilitating business connections and strategic partnerships in the investment of the wider food supply chain and further development of export markets. This MoU provides for continued strengthening of future cooperation between the parties in achieving common goals that will increase the contribution of the agri-food sector to the growing GDP of Kazakhstan.
H.E. Sheikh Bilal Khan, Director General and CEO of IFPA said: “there is a real desire to explore possibilities for joint collaboration on activities and projects in supporting agri-food investors via Kazakh Invest on matters of Shariah structuring, Sukuk listing, Islamic investment funds and other Islamic instruments, which is globally a $3 trillion industry. This agreement will also help promote Kazakh Invest agri-food projects within the OIC member states and connect Islamic investors from the OIC markets to agri-food projects in Kazakhstan.”
Mr. Meirzhan Yussupov, Chairman of the Kazakh Invest, remarked that “I welcome this important initiative which formalizes and strengthens the relationship between our two bodies. I look forward to continuing to build on our constructive cooperation in the interest of enhancing cooperation to promote investment projects and working closely with IFPA to target different ticket size investment deals for agri-food projects in Kazakhstan.”
The parties agreed to set up a joint working group with tangible actions and timelines for 2021 and onwards.
