Kazakhstan to issue Islamic bonds

Kazakhstan is set to issue Islamic bonds, a Tengrinews.kz journalist reports. Today, a conference on Islamic finance in Astana focused on issuing sukuk, Islamic equivalents of bonds, in 2011. Since fixed income, interest bearing bonds are not permissible in Islam, Sukuk securities are structured to comply with the Islamic law and its investment principles, which prohibits the charging, or paying of interest. “Kazakhstan announced its decision to issue sukuk. This will enable corporate players to issue them. The Kazakh Government intends to issue sukuk as early as this year. Currently, Islamic Development Bankholds issues most of sukuk”, said Mohammad Tariq, Islamic Development Bank Adviser to the President in an interview. According to Mr. Mohammad Tariq, the Kazakh market of sukuk is estimated at USD 1 billion. And the figure is set to grow to USD 20 billion in the next following years.