From the 14th till the 16th of October 2009, in Hyatt Regency Kiev hotel (Kyiv, Ukraine) the annual conference "Investment opportunities in Ukraine" took place.

Among the conference participants were members of parliament of Ukraine, representatives of ministries of Ukraine and regional state administrations, mayors, representatives of Embassy of the State of Kuwait in Ukraine, Honorary Consulate of Oman in Ukraine, Embassy of Republic of Iraq in Ukraine, Honorary Consulate of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Kyiv, Embassy of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiria, Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic, Embassy of the Republic of Poland, leading international experts in the sphere of Islamic finance and investor companies, leading Ukrainian companies.

The event was held under the auspices of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Embassy of the State of Kuwait in Ukraine. In total more than 270 delegates and over 70 representatives of Ukrainian and foreign mass media took part in the conference. The importance of this event is hard to overestimate. The conference dedicated to development of Ukrainian-Arabic partnership was held on such a large scale in Ukraine for the first time.

According to Leonid Bogdanov, CEO of UDC Holding, which organized the event, the format of the conference was scientific and practical. "Our goal was not to advertise certain companies, but first of all to present economic potential of Ukraine on the whole, and to provide a real opportunity for establishing business contacts between Arab countries and Ukrainian businessmen".

The scientific part of the conference included several parts, dedicated to Ukrainian-Arabic cooperation, innovative technologies in construction, agricultural potential of Ukraine, Islamic banking, promising projects in transport and tourism spheres.
In part, among the subjects of the conference were special features of Islamic finance and banking. As the famous Shariah Scholar & Islamic Finance Consultant Shaykh Haytham Tamim noted in his lecture, the main feature of Islamic finance is that it is based on ethical principles. The Shariah norms forbid investment into projects connected with alcohol, gambling business and some kind of entertainments. Besides, Shariah forbids to lend money at interest, and that's why investor becomes co-owner of the project. That is one of the main reasons, why Islamic investors so carefully select projects for investments.

A lot of attention was paid to the special features of Islamic banking system.
Islamic banking offers such banking products as Murabahah, Salam, Istisna, Ijarah, Mudarabah, Musharakah and Sukuk, which differ greatly from the European banking system. Fortuna-Bank became the first bank in Ukraine which started to implement these products.

In the context of global tendencies of energy saving connected with growing prices for energy resources the subject of implementing technologies which allow economic usage of energy and optimization of expenses for building upkeeping becomes very topical these days.
That's why the hottest discussions were dedicated to Green Building, one of the most innovative and popular abroad technology of energy saving. Its implementation in construction of office blocks and residential buildings will help to use natural solar energy for light and save drinking water due to storage of rainwater for technical needs. Besides, it is possible to reduce usage of electricity and warmth with the help of energy saving ware and alternative sources of energy. The data shows the possible energy savings in the operation of buildings up to 65%.
One of the first projects with implementation of this technology in Ukraine is business center "Symphony". Its investor and developer is UDC Holding. Realization of this project became possible thanks to cooperation of UDC Holding with the company "Drees & Sommer" - one of the leaders in the field of modern technologies in construction.

Among the key issues discussed at the conference, was the issue of regulation of land ownership rights in Ukraine. Ukrainian land resources are of high interest not only in Ukraine, but also abroad. Ukrainian legislation sets certain restrictions for land ownership for foreign companies. Though, there are a lot of opportunities and legal mechanisms for investments in agricultural sector of Ukraine's economy. And those investors, who will use these opportunities, will get profit of high level. The report was delivered by expert in Real Estate and Construction legislation at the lawyer firm Arzinger, Maksim Cherkasenko.

During the conference a lot of attention was paid to the tourism potential of Ukraine and investment opportunities of Kyiv and Lviv. Construction of Lviv city's airport, construction of transport corridor, which is to connect Ukrainian-Polish border "Krakovets" with existing highway Kyiv-Lviv-Chop, construction of the European standard rail track from Polish-Ukrainian border to Lviv together with necessary and complimentary infrastructure, new stadium area development and other initiatives were named the most promising projects. These projects were presented by the municipal administration of Lviv.
Among the most interesting industries for Arab investors are agriculture, metallurgy, construction and health tourism. Though, according to Vice president of Al-Bader International Development Group Mahrous Besiso, other industries of Ukrainian economy will be also thoroughly studied for their investment potential. Today Arab investors analyze Ukrainian legislation and possibilities for its adaptation to Islamic finance system.

The organizer of the conference was UDC Holding. The company already has a previous successful experience in organizing international conferences in Ukraine and abroad. Among them are international conference «Ukraine: new investment possibilities», which took place in Ukraine (Kyiv) in September, 2008, and Business Forum "Ukraine 2009 - high time for investments" held in Kuwait (Al-Kuwait) in May, 2009.

UDC Holding is the first Ukrainian company which applies Islamic financial tools and successfully works on development of business cooperation between Ukraine and Arab countries.
One of the projects in this direction is a web-site http://arabia-ukraine.com/ dedicated to Ukrainian-Arabic partnership. The web-site is to become a platform for business communication between the countries.

The conference partners:
Knight Frank;
Law firm - Arzinger;
IT-lounge partner- Indigo Print;

Media partners:
Delo; Investgazeta; Commercial Property; Ekonomicheskie Izvestiya; Status; Building Media Group; State TV and Radio Company "Ukrainian TV and Radio International"; Build Review; Property Times; Liga.net; Budivelny Journal; Dengi; Nikolaevsky Kurier; Ukrainian Construction Association; Times Media Group.