Islamic Finance to be Developed in Real Sector
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Kamis, 1 Januari 1970 07:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Sharia Finance Committee (KNKS) Secretary Bambang Brodjonegoro said that the government will develop Islamic finance in the real sector. “We want to push the idea that Islamic finance is not only for the financial sector, but sharia finance can also be developed for the real sector,” said Bambang, who is also the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) head after the launch of KNKS yesterday, July 27, in Jakarta.
The KNKS was launched by President Jokowi. Also present at the event were Vice President Jusuf Kalla, the ‘Working Cabinet’ ministers and Indonesian third president BJ Habibie. In his opening address, Jokowi said that Indonesia’s Islamic finance market share is still small at 5.3 percent in the national banking industry.
Bambang said that the reason behind the small market share is that Indonesia does not have big sharia banks, among others. “It’s because the demand itself is not quite strong. In fact, the demand came from the real sector,” he said.
Therefore, Bambang said, one of the KNKS priorities is to strengthen the real sector i.e. the Islamic economy. He added that the Islamic economy can be translated into the halal industry as well as halal tourism which is currently being developed by the government.
Bambang explained that high growth in the real sector will entail an increase in demand for financing. “It’s how to create demand for Islamic finance which will help make the industry bigger,” he said.
The efforts will continue to be done to attract investors to help make Islamic banks bigger and reach the same level as conventional banks, according to Bambang. He said that there is no ideal market share figure to be reached by Islamic banks. “One thing is for sure, we will develop the Islamic economy. But to set a benchmark, it should reach 10 percent,”
AMIRULLAH SUHADA