January 11 2023 Jeddah, KSA ICIEC has signed a master reinsurance agreement with Uzbekinvest Export- Import Insurance Company to support exports from Uzbekistan. Under the facultative agreement, ICIEC will provide reinsurance services to Uzbekinvest for exports of goods and services from Uzbekistan to the rest of the world. This agreement will enhance the underwriting capacity of Uzbekinvest and increase the country’s exports. The agreement was signed by Oussama Kaissi, Chief Executive Officer of ICIEC, and Rustam Khalikov, First Deputy Director General, Uzbekinvest.

January 12 2023 Jeddah, KSA The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment & Export Credit (ICIEC) has approved and welcomed the accession of Azerbaijan as its 49th member state. ICIEC will work closely with the government of Azerbaijan to support economic and social infrastructure projects in trade, agriculture, energy, water, sanitation, and urban services and with the private sector to improve access to finance. ICIEC’s presence as an investment partner provides a measure of reassurance and encouragement to other potential investors seeking opportunities in Azerbaijan. The investment projects often provide employment, enhanced, modern and efficient infrastructure, and better quality of life for citizens.

January 19, 2023 Abu Dhabi, UAE ICIEC and Masdar have signed an MoU which aims to boost the transition to renewable and clean energy. Under the MoU, the two parties agree to cooperate in promoting joint action in the origination, financing, and execution of renewable energy projects through ICIEC’s insurance support in its member states. The partnership will have a combined current, committed, and exclusive capacity of over 23GW of renewable energy, with the expectation of reaching over 50GW total capacity by 2030. Masdar and ICIEC share a common interest in contributing to the growth of renewable energy in ICIEC member states, including in the MENA region, and to international climate finance architecture.

January 25, 2023  Jeddah, KSA ICIEC has been honoured at the Islamic Finance News Awards with ‘IFN Indonesia Deal of the Year 2022’ for its US$80 million political risk insurance cover for SIDRA Capital. ICIEC received the award at the IFN Dubai Awards Ceremony on March 16. The insurance cover supported SIDRA Capital in securing a Shariah-compliant loan facility to PT MCT (Asia Trading) in Indonesia. The facility is used to fund transactions involving suppliers and operators in the mining and nickel trading sectors, specifically, to help SME mines have access to finance, assisting local mining companies in bridging the current financing gap.

January 19, 2023 Abu Dhabi, UAE ICIEC has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Libyan Export Promotion Center (LEPC) to support cooperation between both parties. The agreement is to facilitate Libyan exports and create an environment supportive of building confidence in companies to export. LEPC is a government body affiliated to the Ministry Economy. The agreement will help provide export credit and investment insurance facilities to a range of Libyan institutions and companies. The MoU aims to support introductory seminars for Islamic insurance, export credit and investment insurance, provide technical support to local insurers, introduce foreign investments into Libyans’ export projects and exchange information on exporters based in Libya looking for export credit insurance.

February 2023 ICIEC takes great pride in nurturing its leadership skills internally and has run a series of leadership transformation workshops. This is an unusual, even non-traditional, path to really boost internal leadership skills and help ICIEC to develop the way it delivers its important mission.

The program, which started in October 2021 and ran through until February 2023, aimed to help leaders – and potential leaders – to master the skills and competencies for effective performance in the digital world with a modern approach to enhancing positive working practices and an upbeat and enthusiastic working atmosphere.

In practical terms, the leadership transformation workshops included a series of both group and individual activities and experiences to boost performance. This included identifying and developing the competencies required for good leadership, increasing staff morale, motivation, and productivity, promoting heightened decision-making, creating and building better teams and training leaders on how to become transformational of those teams.

Through six leadership workshop modules, ICIEC management explored how to understand their role as a leader, develop executive presence, become transformational leader, lead and managing change, and build a results-oriented culture while cultivating effective communication and collaboration.

March 19, 2023 Jeddah, KSA ICIEC has developed and launched a capacity building programme for the users of the OIC Business Intelligence Centre (OBIC), which is targeted at supporting credit and investment decisions. The programme, called ‘the role of credit information sharing and business intelligence in supporting trade and investment decisions will help OBIC users understand OBIC better, how best to use it, and how to employ resources to improve credit risk management and trade and investment financing access and risk management. The three-day programme will also help contribute to improving credit rating reporting ecosystems in OIC member states.