Building on its strong commercial presence of large conglomerates from GCC region, the Eurasian region, as a geographically strategic area with an estimated population of 5.4 billion, aims to become a key partner with the major GCC Islamic finance players moving forward, KAMAL BAYRAMOV writes.
Strength in Eurasia
Both historically and at present, the Eurasian region has been economically powerful and against this backdrop, with Uzbekistan alone attracting investments of US$25 billion from the Gulf region, Alisher Djumanov, the founder of AD Wealth, presented at the IFN Investor Forum 2025 in Dubai.
“The region, that has historical ties to the Middle East and Gulf, has suffered decades of isolation, with the emergence of the Iron Curtain during the time of the Soviet Union regime. This isolation had cut off both regions’ centuries old diplomatic, economic, commercial and investment links. But in recent years, ties between these regions have been re-established,” Alisher highlighted.
Looking at the 2,000-year-old map of the Silk Road, connecting Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, India and China, the proximity of Uzbekistan to the Middle East is obvious. Furthermore, the link to the Silk Road has contributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of people of Uzbekistan and Central Asia. And led to other neighboring countries having set up trading operations which spanned 1,500 years until the discovery of India and China by the Europeans by sea.
Steps toward cooperation
One of the major steps to reconnect Uzbekistan to the Middle Eastern markets was the establishment of an Islamic finance facility in Uzbekistan, led by Ipak Yuli Bank with the support of the IsDB. Ipak Yuli Bank provides Islamic banking options on a window basis.
“This made it possible for institutions to have confidence in terms of taking credit and commercial risks in the region.
Alisher cited Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and Abu Dhabi-based Masdar as particular examples because these two outfits combined “have accumulated or assembled an impressive portfolio of renewable projects, all of them green field, in Uzbekistan with total value of US$25 billion.”
“Companies that we like to call national champions, namely ACWA Power, Masdar, TAQA Water Solution, Nebras Power, Datavolt, Saudi National Bank (SNB), QNB, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), were mostly domestic companies in their respective markets, and are heavily investing in the region,” he continued.
These multibillion investments cover infrastructure investments, renewables and data centers.
After establishing an Uzbekistan footprint, Alisher noted these firms and more are now expanding into other countries in the region like Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – further entrenching themselves in the economic development within the Eurasian region.
GCC Islamic financial institutions to expand presence in Eurasia
“Since these large companies are so entrenched in the region, I have no doubt that the top banks such as SNB, QNB, FAB will have to expand into the Eurasian region. This is based on the fact that when European and US companies set up business in the region, major banks have followed suit,” he added.
“It would then mean that Islamic investment via Islamic banks will follow. That’s how we’re going to see substantial commercial engagement by the Gulf investors in the Central Asian and the Eurasian regions.”
This is by no means a one-way traffic, since the GCC has positioned itself as a global hub for both Global North and South. A number of companies from Eurasia have started setting up offices in the GCC, particularly in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Some will even go as far as IPO. One example is Uzum Technologies, Uzbekistan’s leading tech giant that operates in e-commerce and fintech – registered in Abu Dhabi Global Markets, it is targeting an IPO on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange within the next three to four years.
In 2024, Uzum raised more than US$100 million in funding, which allowed them to be valued at over US$1 billion. The Series A funding round was possible through investors from the US and GCC countries.
