VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 2 - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) highlighted the performance of Indonesia's Islamic banking industry that grew at a faster rate than that of conventional banking despite the challenging times presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I am pleased to be informed that the performance of the Indonesian Islamic banking continues to record stable growth, and that Islamic banking has managed to grow, even higher than conventional banking. We should be grateful," President Jokowi stated while inaugurating PT Bank Syariah Indonesia Tbk at the State Palace here on Monday.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Islamic banking industry marked a 10.9 percent (year-on-year/yoy) growth in assets or higher than conventional banking that recorded a 7.7-percent growth, according to the head of state.

Moreover, from the collection of third-party funds (DPK), the Islamic banking industry was able to record a growth of 11.56 percent, while conventional banks grew up to 11.49 percent.

Meanwhile, from the financing side, the Islamic banking industry in the country had grown about 9.42 percent, or much higher than conventional banks that recorded a 0.55-percent growth.

With such growth data, President Jokowi expressed confidence that Indonesia's Islamic economic industry would continue to grow rapidly.

"I believe Indonesia's sharia economy will grow very fast and will contribute significantly to the welfare of our people and society," President Jokowi stated.

However, Jokowi also reminded all parties to relentlessly strive to encourage growth of the national sharia economy, so that Indonesia will later become a sharia economic hub at the regional and global levels.

Currently, Jokowi noted that the Islamic economic sector in Indonesia had experienced significant growth and was ranked fourth in the world this year in line with the data from The State of Global Islamic Economy Indicator Report.

"In 2018, Indonesia's sharia economy was ranked 10th in the world. In 2019, it rose to the fifth rank in the world, and in 2020, Indonesia's sharia economy was ranked 4th in the world," President Jokowi stated. (Antaranews)