Khaled Al-Aboodi, CEO and General Manager of ICD, left, exchanges the agreement with Rajabbek Sulaymonbeko, the Deputy Chairman of Orienbank in Tajikistan on Wednesday. DUSHANBE—Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private sector (ICD) Chief Executive Officer Khaled Al-Aboodi, and Tajikistan's Orienbank Deputy Chairman Rajabbek Sulaymonbekov signed a deal that saw ICD extending to the Tajik bank $6 million Line of Financing facility during the 38th IDB Group meeting here. The $6 million Line of financing facility will then be lent by Orienbank to the SMEs sector to projects in industrial, communication, technology, health, construction and agricultural sectors. Khaled Al-Aboodi commented: “The small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have a crucial role to play in the country's growth and development, and ICD has big plans for them. This is an important sector in all the member countries, including the higher income ones. ICD is now focusing on this sector by extending lines of finance to local banks and establishing Ijara companies and investment funds.” Previously ICD signed financing agreement with another local financial institution for a total of $11.5 million line of financing facility for the development of SMEs in Tajikistan which demonstrates ICD's firm commitment to develop the private sector in its member countries. About $10 million out of the total facility amount has now been fully disbursed. The ICD and Thomson Reuters, the world's leading provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, announced a deal for the joint development of the Islamic Finance Development Indicator — a single, composite numerical measure representing the overall health and growth of the Islamic finance industry worldwide. The ICD Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Development Indicator expands the scope of Thomson Reuters' universe of Islamic finance content, research and news analysis to develop a much needed unbiased and reliable multidimensional barometer of the development of the Islamic finance industry. Russell Haworth, Managing Director, Middle East and North Africa, Thomson Reuters, said: “Thomson Reuters has been at the forefront of some of the major market moving measures in the world. We are proud to continue providing our expertise in developing high impact indicators to measure the development of the Islamic Finance industry.” — SG
