H.E. Dr. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia Finance Minister and IsDB Governor for Indonesia, presented her keynote speech in the side event of IsDB Group 43^rd Annual Meeting entitled “Role of Islamic Capital Markets in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” in Tunis, Tunisia on 3 April 2018. The side event aimed to discuss the importance and relevance of Islamic Capital Markets and how it can be leveraged for development projects in achieving the SDGs.

H.E. Indonesia Finance Minister explained that sustainable development needs a significant amount of funding. And hence countries can not solely rely on conventional sources of funding. “They need to find alternative sources and Islamic Capital Market offers an alternative source of funding in realizing the SDGs,” said H.E. Dr. Sri Mulyani.

In Indonesia, Sukuk has been one of the crucial elements in financing national development for over the past five years. As the Government of Indonesia has adopted the SDGs in its development plan, the funds collected from Sukuk are used to finance development programs that will help the country in attaining the SDGs. Indonesia has issued sukuks to finance a number of development projects with a total value of USD 4.9 million, and recently it issued a Wakalah sukuk with a total value of USD 3 million for environmental projects in renewable energy, waste management and green building.

H.E. Dr. Bandar Hajjar, the IsDB President, inaugurated and made his keynote speech in the seminar. A number of reputable personalities including H.E. Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, Senior VP, World Bank; Gulcin Salingan, Deputy Director, Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD), UNDP; and Datuk Zainal Izlan Zainal Abidin, Managing Director, Development & Islamic Markets, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Malaysia, also participated as speakers in the event.