VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

 

With huge market potential, Indonesia should be the main driver of sharia economy. It was conveyed by President Joko Widodo during a Plenary Meeting of the National Committee on Sharia Finance with ome cabinet ministers on Monday, 5 February 2018, at the Presidential Office of Jakarta.

"I want to emphasize that in the development of sharia economy, we should not only become the target market and industrial products of other countries just to become consumers," said President.

One of the potentials of Indonesia as a country with the largest Muslim population in the world is the asset of sharia banking that continues to increase. In 2017, Indonesia's sharia banking assets stood at Rp435 trillion, or about 5.8% of total banking assets of Indonesia.

"Therefore  we are very serious to work on this potential, and I see the numbers also show improvement," he said.

Similarly, the sharia capital market whose numbers continue to improve. In fact, Indonesia's sukuk market share reached 19% of all sukuk issued by various countries. Not only that, the total assets of sharia non-Islamic finance industry has also doubled in the last five years.

"We also have great potential for the collection of religious social funds, such as pilgrim funds, zakat funds, waqf funds, and infaq funds, and alms," said the President.

Furthermore, the President also mentioned other potentials that must be immediately worked out in the framework of developing sharia economy. Starting from the industrial field fashion, Muslim fashion, halal food, pharmacy, until the tourism sector.

In food industry for example, Indonesia has the highest level of halal food consumption in the world. Indonesia also entered the top five countries with consumption of medicinal products, kosal cosmetics, and the largest Muslim fashion in the world. While in the tourism economy, Indonesia ranks fourth with the most number of tourist visits from OIC members.

"The potential of this tourism sector is still very promising, with global tourism spending reaching USD169 billion or 11.8 percent of global tourism consumption spending," he said.

Nevertheless, the President appealed that the development of Islamic finance industry can provide tangible benefits, including supporting efforts to reduce poverty in order to reduce the number of inequality in the country.

"The data I received still shows that the use of sharia financing is 41.8%, mostly for consumption, while working capital and investment financing only reach 34.3% and 23.2%, respectively," said President.

The President also requested that by 2018 the Shariah LKM, micro-endowment banks, especially those located in pesantren-pesantren, are further expanded and expanded to cover all parts of Indonesia

At the end of his introduction, the President requested that reforms and improvements to the management of zakat and waqf continue to be done to support poverty alleviation programs  and suppress the number of inequities. (Release: Protocol, Press and Media Secretariat of the President)