Canadian think tank Digital Finance Institute and the Iranian global holding company Sana Pardakht have joined forces for Iran’s first conference on banking, business opportunities and trade.
The conference on FinTech and Innovation with Digital Finance Iran will be held on October 7 and 8 at Kish Island, a visa-free economic zone off Iran, Trade Arabia wrote.
Topics at the conference center around FinTech and will include sessions on the role of innovation labs to drive technology, banking and finance, Bitcoin, smart cities and renewable energy, emerging payments, Iran’s potential to emerge as a finance hub post-sanctions, business opportunities in Iran and the growing importance of social banking, it said.
Majid Javdani, a prominent international lawyer and chairman of Sana Pardakht, said: “The time was right for a conference on FinTech and innovation for Iran. Iran has a young and well-educated population of 75 million people who live in an increasingly connected world where online commerce and FinTech will play a vital role in the growth of our economy in the next few years”.
Javdani noted that the conference will act as a catalyst to start building the FinTech and innovation ecosystem in Iran in partnership with companies from other nations.
“We are very pleased to be partnering with Canada’s Digital Finance Institute for the region’s First Conference on FinTech, Innovation and International Trade and to a long and rewarding relationship with the institution on many projects,” he said.
Christine Duhaime, a prominent lawyer and the founder and executive director of Digital Finance Institute, said Iran has incredible potential as a financial hub and will emerge very quickly as a FinTech and innovation powerhouse.
“Partnering with Iran’s Sana Pardakht to support the growth of Iran’s FinTech, banking and payments sector provides parallel opportunities for Canada and other countries interested in doing business in Iran and we are pleased to lend our expertise to this ground-breaking event,” she said.
Duhaime added that fostering a supportive environment for entrepreneurs, innovators and financiers is critical to driving investment and that is part of what the institute does.
Digital Finance Iran targets banks, venture capital firms, innovation labs, universities, entrepreneurs, financial technology companies, AML compliance teams, lawyers, investors, renewable energy sector, digital currency companies, startups, payment processors and government regulators.
The conference will include keynote discussions on using FinTech to resolve payment impediments for refugees as part of a focus on social banking and financial inclusion, an area of concern that unites both Sana Pardakht and the Digital Finance Institute.
The institute launched the first refugee banking project in the world in 2014 to provide financial inclusion solutions to refugees.
