Tashkent ready to challenge Dubai and Riyadh for Islamic fintech crown

Issac John

Uzbekistan has emerged from the three-day Silk Road Finance & Technology Forum with an audacious ambition: to establish Tashkent as Central Asia’s financial technology gateway and, increasingly, as a bridge between the region and the $6 trillion global Islamic finance industry.

The question is whether this is achievable — or is it just another aspirational hub strategy in an increasingly crowded financial geography.

There are reasons to take Tashkent seriously. Uzbekistan has a population exceeding 39 million, rapidly rising digital adoption, an expanding fintech ecosystem and a government willing to rewrite financial rules aggressively. Its National Fintech Strategy targets $1 billion in fintech investment and 5,000 trained specialists by 2030.

More significantly, Uzbekistan is simultaneously building the institutional architecture Islamic finance requires. New legislation allows Islamic banking and Islamic windows, while a 2026-2030 roadmap is addressing Shariah governance, regulation, liquidity instruments and skills. A planned Tashkent International Financial Centre would operate under English common-law principles and accommodate Islamic finance, fintech and digital assets.

Central Bank Governor Timur Ishmetov raised the stakes on Wednesday by announcing a sovereign sukuk programme.

“We will launch a program to issue sovereign Islamic bonds,” he said, arguing that the initiative could eventually help attract $10 billion in additional investment into Uzbek enterprises.

Yet Tashkent starts far behind the Gulf.

Nasdaq Dubai alone had over $100 billion of outstanding sukuk at the end of the first half of 2026. DIFC had 1,933 AI, fintech and innovation companies, while Abu Dhabi’s ADGM recorded 13,353 active licences and a 57 per cent surge in assets under management in the first quarter.

Saudi Arabia presents an equally formidable benchmark. Its fintech population had already risen to 281 companies by August 2025, with cumulative investment exceeding SR8.9 billion, while Shariah-compliant banking finance stood at SR2.59 trillion in the first quarter of 2025. Riyadh is explicitly seeking global fintech-hub status under Vision 2030.

Uzbekistan must also contend with Kazakhstan. The Astana International Financial Centre already operates an English common-law jurisdiction, fintech laboratory, Islamic-finance framework and exchange offering sukuk. Its 2026-2028 strategy specifically targets fintech and Islamic finance expansion.

This makes Uzbekistan’s ambition achievable only if “hub” is carefully defined.

Tashkent can realistically become a leading Islamic-fintech gateway for Central Asia, where penetration of Shariah-compliant finance remains relatively shallow. Becoming a rival to Dubai or Riyadh is another matter. Financial hubs are built not merely through legislation but through liquidity, institutional investors, international banks, legal certainty, specialist talent and decades of market credibility.

Islamic Financial Serivces Board (IFSB) Secretary-General Dr Ghiath Shabsigh identified precisely that challenge, warning that despite Islamic finance’s scale, its ecosystem remains uneven.

“Technology is an important dimension to how this infrastructure can develop,” he said, arguing that digitalisation should overcome barriers to market access and cross-border participation rather than merely digitise existing inefficiencies.

For the UAE and Saudi Arabia, therefore, Uzbekistan is less an existential rival than an emerging new frontier.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi could provide the banks, asset managers, fintech platforms, Shariah expertise and sukuk infrastructure Tashkent requires.

Saudi institutions could similarly use Uzbekistan to extend Islamic finance deeper into Central Asia.

Competition will nevertheless increase — for startups, capital, listings and financial talent.

The smartest Gulf response would consequently be not to resist Tashkent’s rise, but to help finance it.

If Uzbekistan succeeds, it may not displace Dubai or Riyadh. It could instead enlarge their hinterland, creating a new Islamic-finance corridor stretching from the Gulf deep into Central Asia.