Investment and youth entrepreneurship forum held in Baku

The Azerbaijan Investment and Youth Entrepreneurship Forum that was organized by the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF) and the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (SMBDA) was held between Nov. 17-18 in Baku.

Representatives from different industries, decisionmakers and professionals from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member countries attended the event, which gathered entrepreneurs and investors from 40 nations under the forum’s “Toward Youth-Driven Future” theme.

Taha Ayhan, the president of ICYF, Azerbaijan’s Digital Development and Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev, Göksel Aşan, the head of the Presidency’s Finance Office and Salim Arda Ermut delivered speeches at the event and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent a message to the forum.

“It is very important for our young brothers, who are the guarantors of the future, to embrace their language, beliefs and culture. I am expecting you to further strengthen our eternal brotherhood,” said Erdoğan in his message.

Their aim is to introduce young people to development models, said Ayhan at his speech. “After last year’s summit some startups received investments, some financial institutions invested in different countries, primarily in Azerbaijan,” he added.

Ayhan said, that starting in 2023 there would be events in Russia, Jordan, Pakistan, Niger, Algeria and Bangladesh.

For his part, Nabiyev said that today’s the main issue is developing human resources.

Türkiye is working on a new strategy for participation financing, Aşan said. “We are making efforts to further develop participating financing in Türkiye and other Islamic countries,” he added.

Ermut stressed that the Türkiye Wealth Fund (TVF) with its 3.2 trillion Turkish Liras in asset is one of the largest financial structures in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He recalled the launch of a $300 million technology fund together with Abu Dhabi’s ADQ at the start of the year. “This was the first step toward establishing a $1 billion Türkiye Technology Fund by the TVF,” he said.