Meeting with the Vice President, DinarStandard Explained the Strategy for Developing the Sharia Economy and the commitment to building cooperation with Indonesia

Dubai, wapresri.go.id – The DinarStandard study is one of the crucial references for Indonesia in formulating sharia economic and financial development policies in each leading sector.

Indonesia employs the State of the Global Islamic Economy (SGIE) and its indicators issued by the DinarStandard to spur various leading sectors. From Muslim fashion, halal food, cosmetics, Islamic banking, and Islamic social funds to Muslim-friendly tourism so that it can grow faster.

When meeting with Vice President K.H. Ma’ruf Amin, Senior Researcher at DinarStandard, Mohamed Ali Mechraoui explained his experience in helping several Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, in developing the Islamic economy and finance. Primarily through the development of the halal industry.

“We have supported Saudi Arabia in one of the big halal projects,” said Ali when meeting the Vice President at Turkish Suit Lt. 15, Raffles Hotel Dubai, United Arab Emirates (PEA), Thursday (03/11/2022).

In Saudi Arabia, continued Ali, we analyzed their trade, made a road map, and pointed out specific sectors they must prioritize.

“Is it related to the problem of the meat industry, poultry, or even the packaging system,” he explained.

Furthermore, Ali explained that cooperation and mutual assistance between Muslim countries are one of the basic principles in developing the halal industry.

“Supposedly, there should be no competition between Muslim countries, but what needs to build is cooperation and mutual assistance to one another,” he said.

The importance of this cooperation, said Ali because not all countries have the same commodities. For example, Malaysia and Indonesia have palm oil that they can use to help other countries that do not have it.

“Big countries like Kazakhstan and Pakistan produce wheat. To create a market between member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for this commodity, the strong can help the weak,” for example.

Furthermore, Ali said that the turnover of the world’s halal ecosystem currently reaches 2 trillion USD. This condition is none other than the support of the global Islamic economy, which continues to grow 5 to 6% every year.

“We certainly have to focus on potential existing sectors such as the food industry, medicine, cosmetics, halal tourism, and Islamic finance industry,” he said.

These sectors, according to Ali, are currently an added value for Muslim-majority countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Primarily the food and medical sector are closely related to resilience and defense, which is very important for every country.

We have assisted Malaysia with a design roadmap for 2019, and we can see the results now. Of course, we want to see the development of the halal industry in Indonesia as well,” he concluded.

Adding to Ali’s statement, another DinarStandard researcher, Randah Taher, expressed his optimism that Indonesia is ready to lead the global halal market.

“The sharia ecosystem in Indonesia is very structured. There is already a halal certification, BPJPH, KNEKS, are also very involved in financing the development of the sharia economy. Indonesia has also issued the largest sharia Sukuk in the world,” he said.

According to him, Indonesia needs to assemble these various elements into one unit and have a strategy to become a global sharia player.

“Now is the time for us to be able to help develop a strategy for the development of Islamic economics and finance in Indonesia, especially how to invest in Islamically profitable Islamic investments,” he said.

Responding to these various inputs, the Vice President welcomed and immediately asked KNEKS to explore cooperation with DinarStandard to formulate a strategy and determine what incentives and facilities the government needs to prepare to develop Islamic economics and finance.

“Then matters that are not yet available related to cooperation with the UAE government, I ask the Ambassador to follow up,” he added.

Furthermore, the Vice President said that Indonesia currently desires to build an Islamic economic and financial system and wants to play globally.

“Therefore, Indonesia is building an ecosystem, both institutional and networking. Indonesia is building institutions, namely KNEKS for the center and KDEKS for the regions,” he explained.

The four focuses in developing the Islamic economy and finance, said the Vice President, include the development of the halal industry, the financial industry, the development of sharia businesses, and sharia social finance.

“For the halal industry, we are building a halal ecosystem, starting from halal industrial areas in various regions as part of special economic zones to halal certification,” he said.

Several Indonesian halal commodities, said the Vice President, is currently being developed, starting from Muslim fashion, halal food and drinks, to tourism.

“Every place in Indonesia is a tourist destination. Until some say that Indonesia is a piece of heaven on earth,” he said.

For this reason, he hoped that in the future, many investors would come to Indonesia to invest in the sharia economy and finance, especially in the Muslim-friendly tourism sector.

“President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said that Indonesia has everything, enormous natural resources, a large population as human resources, and can become a large and developed country. But I said we need technology, and science, so we need cooperation with PEA,” he concluded.

Several DinarStandard officials were present on this occasion: Research Analyst Iman Ali Liaqat, Operations Manager Zuhaib Baig, and Research and Operational Assistant Hanya Waseem.

Meanwhile, the Vice President was accompanied by the Indonesian Ambassador to the PEA Husin Bagis, Head of the Vice President Secretariat Ahmad Erani Yustika, Director General for Asia Pacific and Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abdul Kadir Jailani, Special Staff for the Vice President for Communication and Information Masduki Baidlowi, Special Staff for the Vice President for General Affairs Mohammad Imam Aziz , Special Staff of the Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Regional Autonomy Satya Arinanto, Head of the National Amil Zakat Agency Noor Ahmad, and Main Director of Bank Syariah Indonesia Hery Gunardi. (SM/LHS-BPMI Setwapres)