Crucial to Indonesia’s turnaround is the role played by the Shariah Economy and Finance sector, which has contributed greatly to the national economic recovery from the impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Solikin M Juhro, Head of the Bank Indonesia Institute, stated that in the wake of a pandemic such as the coronavirus, all countries should optimise their full potential to overcome challenges. As such, Indonesia’s economic recovery must also look towards using all its available resources to overcome the pande...

A virus too small for the naked eye has brought the world to a screeching halt. The trillions spent by advanced nations on defence budgets, seemingly to protect their citizens and their economies have thus far had zero effect. So too, the billions spent on biological warfare defence. Across the world, even in the most developed countries, thousands have died, and the global economy is in ruins. Like the kid who exposed the emperor to have no clothes, the virus has laid bare&n...

United Arab Emirate-based energy producer, Dana Gas, has announced that it has fully redeemed its outstanding USD 309 million Sukuk on the 31st of October 2020, aided by a USD 90 million credit facility from Mashreq Bank as well as the sale of Dana Gas’ interests in Egypt, according to media reports.  The receipts of the funds were confirmed by the principal paying agent, who will disburse the funds to clearing systems on the 2nd of November 2020, to be received by clearing system participants on the 3rd of November 2020.   ...

Nasdaq Dubai has recently listed a USD 600 million Sukuk issued by the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), which is the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).  According to local media reports, the capital raised from the five-year Sukuk will be used for development activities in IsDB’s 55-member countries, including entrepreneurship, export potential, creating competition, employment opportunities as well as developing Islamic financing activities in the debt and equity capital markets.&n...

Indonesia is anticipated to experience an economic contraction of over 3.0% year-on-year (YoY) in the July-September 2020 quarter (3Q 2020) according to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). This expectation is worse than the Finance Minister’s previous gross domestic product (GDP) estimate of 1.0-2.9% YoY for 3Q 2020. The President estimated that investments may have fallen by over 5.0% YoY in the third quarter of 2020, with household consumption forecast to have declined 4.0% YoY.  Jokowi noted that there was an opportunity for Indonesia...

Maybank Investment Bank (Maybank) is of the view the Government of Malaysia can encourage more companies to look into sustainable financing under the upcoming Budget 2021, which aims at promoting an economic recovery as well as the protection of social welfare.  Fad’l Mohamed, Maybank’s Chief Executive Officer, stated that sustainable and responsible investing (SRI) has seen strong demand and opportunities over the past year whilst remaining a growing sector. Given this, Mohamed believes that the corporate sector can be pushe...

Indonesia has the opportunity to become the centre of global Halal producers provided there is close cooperation between the Indonesian Government, private sector, state-owned enterprises, community organizations and the public, according to Minister of Trade, Agus Suparmanto.    Speaking at a recent webinar at the International Sharia Economic Festival 2020, Agus noted that key stakeholders should work together to identify challenges and opportunities in order to develop a strategy to boost exports of Indonesian Halal products. &nb...

The immense financing requirements of African countries and growing government interest will fuel the continent’s Islamic finance growth with a significant increase in banking assets, according to a recent report published by Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s).  Moody’s reported that although Sub-Saharan Africa made up around 16% of the global Muslim population, its Shariah-compliant banking assets only constituted around 1% of global Islamic banking assets. However, Moody’s noted that there was an increasing African presence in Islamic capital m...

United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) has announced the successful completion of the final stage of its merger with Noor Bank, according to a customer email confirmation, as reported in local media.   DIB temporarily suspended its services during 28th to 31st October 2020 in order to complete the integration of Noor Bank into DIB, with normal banking operations restored on the 1st of November 2020 upon successful integration.  In January 2020, DIB completed the full acquisition of Noor Bank with the issuance of 651.2 million...