BEIRUT — Policy makers, the private sector and governments continue to find ways to bridge gaps in infrastructure funding, with social infrastructure landscape climbing to the top of agendas in importance. Deloitte Middle East continues to bring the latest insights on this trend through its new Islamic Finance insights series, “Scalable and sustainable source of funding social infrastructure”.

The industry whitepaper published by Deloitte’s Islamic Finance Knowledge Center (IFKC) in the Middle East, is produced in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment (CISI), UK. The analysis, views and policy recommendations have been contributed by prominent industry thought leaders: Stella Cox, CBE, Tallat Hussain, Nyra Mahmood, Peter Casey, George Littlejohn and Dr. Osman Ahmed, who similarly contributed to our industry dialogue held in London last November.

The success of infrastructure projects in using Islamic finance has inspired project benefactors (equity investors) in countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and many others to seek pursuing sustainable funding through Islamic finance, along with conventional finance, in undertaking yet to come infrastructure projects

“Deloitte’s Islamic finance insights series has made an impact in creating a cross border industry dialogue platform for practitioners, regulators, strategists and scholars to get together to assess industry development and practice integrity,” said Joe El Fadl, financial services industry leader at Deloitte Middle East.

“Investment and financing with measurable impact now has the attention of the global investor community. The prospect of the contribution that can be made from a fully integrated, faith based and socially conscious approach, to satisfy a portion of the social infrastructure-funding gap, is immensely exciting. There are challenges to overcome, but there has yet to be a better opportunity for the Islamic financial sector to demonstrate its unique value proposition,” said Stella Cox, CBE, managing director, at DDCAP Group.

“I am delighted that our industry forum on social infrastructure has produced this whitepaper which developed practical analysis and forward thinking thoughts as how Islamic finance can play its natural role in this pivotal sector of economy” said Dr. Hatim El Tahir, Director, Islamic finance group leader at Deloitte, Middle East.

“Sustainable finance has become one of the fastest-growing sectors in the securities and investment world. Mounting interest in more “ethical” investment, particularly amongst “millennials”, and evidence that firms that behave better deliver better returns, have fuelled this trend. We are delighted to continue our close cooperation with [Deloitte] in broadening and deepening our members’ knowledge in this field and we welcome this excellent new thought leadership report” said George Littlejohn, senior advisor at the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), UK.

In defining and accepting the Shariah-compliant funding structure for social projects, there should be continued industry dialogue between practitioners, policy makers, regulators and market participants, to articulate and assess suitable investment and funding structures that will create bold commercial and investment proposition in the market place.

This whitepaper is produced under the Deloitte Islamic finance series, “Leading by Engaging”, by the Deloitte ME Islamic Finance Knowledge Center (IFKC). — SG