Sharjah: 4th February 2015

The Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq)  is delighted to announce that a panel of distinguished experts in the financial services industry will lead a session on cross-border financing options for FDI at the twelfth World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment, to be held in Sharjah.

The panel - titled: 'Vanishing Frontiers: Cross-border Financing Options for FDI' - will be the third of five panels in the forum, held at 3.30 p.m on February 9th at Al Jawaher Reception and Convention Centre Moderating is Mr. Mark Beer, OBE, Chief Executive Officer  & Registrar of the DIFC Courts. He will be joined by panellists Mr Mohsin Ali Nathani, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank UAE, Mr. Muzaffar Hisham, Group Head of Islamic Banking and Chief Executive Officer of Maybank Islamic Berhad, and Mr. Julio de Quesada, Head of Corporate and Investment Banking Group at Mashreq bank PSC.

In a climate where stress-tested banks are becoming increasingly cautious in their lending, the session will explore alternative sources of finance for overseas projects.

The variety of avenues to be examined will include financing from multilateral agencies and development banks, public-private partnerships, sovereign wealth funds, venture capital, and business angels. As part of this, there will also be a special focus on Islamic finance.

These topics are highly relevant in the current global financial environment. Global sovereign wealth funds, for example, have recorded new records of activity over the last couple of years, with one of the most active being the UAE's Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The New Development Bank, focussing primarily on lending for infrastructure projects, was established in July last year by the BRICS states: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Meanwhile, recent studies show that the Islamic finance market is now worth more than US$ 2 trillion, having doubled in size over the past four years.

HE Marwan bin Jassim Al Sarkal, CEO of Sharjah Investment and Development Authority "Shurooq" said: "With traditional sources of financing facing fresh challenges all around the globe, the World Forum for FDI's session on cross-border finance is a remarkable opportunity to explore the most pressing issues facing the industry with some of the world's leading experts. We are delighted that Sharjah, with its rapidly growing and robustly regulated financial services sector, will host this clearly vital discussion".

The World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment, considered to be the world's premier FDI platform, is being held in the region for the firm time from February 8th - 10th . Under the theme: 'Where East Meets West', it will be attended by CEOs and senior executives from local and international organizations, investment promotion agencies and economic development organizations. International guest speakers at this year's event will include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and The Rt Hon. the Lord Mandelson, a former long-serving British cabinet member and European Commissioner for Trade. In previous years the Forum has been held in many of the world's leading investment centres, including Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Valencia, Bologna, Vilnius, Tallinn, Shanghai, and Philadelphia.

-Ends-

For more information, please contact:
Carmen Audino
Sahara Communications
Mob: 00971554563251                               
carmena@saharagcc.com

© Press Release 2015