The Islamic Development Bank Group opened its 2026 Annual Meetings in Baku on 16 June, running through 19 June at the Baku Convention Center under the patronage of President Ilham Aliyev. The theme, 'Regional Integration for Sustainable Prosperity', matches the IsDB's new ten-year strategic framework, which identifies regional connectivity as a core priority. More than 2,000 participants have gathered, including finance ministers, central bank governors and senior officials from the bank's 57 member countries.
At the board meeting on the sidelines, the IsDB approved $2.8 billion in financing for projects across member states: a $1 billion refinery expansion in Bangladesh, rail links in Türkiye and Uganda, and renewable energy projects in Africa. Central Asia featured directly: the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) signed agreements with Tajikistan on the margins of the forum, and the IsDB outlined a reverse-linkage project connecting Azerbaijan's digital public services model with Tajikistan's government infrastructure.
Central Asia and the Caucasus are expected to deepen their role as an East–West bridge over the next five years, an IsDB official said in Baku.
An IsDB representative attending TIIF in Tashkent told reporters that the prospects for Islamic banking across Central Asia are strong, noting that all four member countries in the region — Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan — have adopted legislative frameworks, leaving Turkmenistan as the only holdout. The two forums running simultaneously, TIIF in Tashkent and IsDB in Baku, illustrate the depth of the current investment pitch season for the region.