Mission Samarkand: To the heart of the Silk Road

OPEC Fund Vice President, Private Sector Tareq Alnassar and Business Development Director Khalid Khadduri led a high-level mission to the Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in September in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, located at the heart of the ancient Silk Road. 

In recent years the OPEC Fund has considerably stepped up its activities in the Central Asian republic and the conference provided an opportunity to further deepen relations. Among others, the delegation met with the Uzbek lenders Asaka Bank and SQB as providing finance to local banks for on-lending to domestic enterprises is a cornerstone of the OPEC Fund’s engagement in Uzbekistan. 

In recent years new milestones were reached with large-scale investments in clean energy. During an official visit in May OPEC Fund President Abdulhamid Alkhalifa signed a partnership agreement for 2024-2029, earmarking US$500 million in new financing to support the country’s sustainable development agenda. 

The OPEC Fund representatives also met with Mohammed A. Abunayyan, the Chairman of Vision Invest, a leading Saudi development and investment holding company supporting sustainable infrastructure. The focus of the discussion was potential future cooperation. In further meetings AIIB leaders such as Sir Danny Alexander, VP for Policy and Strategy, Rajat Mistra, Acting VP for Investment Clients Region 1 and Financial Institutions and Funds, Global, and Hun Kim, Acting VP, Investment Solutions and their respective teams, reiterated strong interest in deepening the partnership with the OPEC Fund.