Online Internship Program “Contemporary Dynamics of Indonesia”
NHT EXCLUSIVE
A lively session of the Online Internship Program “Contemporary Dynamics of Indonesia” had an interesting an enlightening discussion on Indonesia’s Potential of Sharia Economy & Halal Market. Renowned Indonesian Halal Market Scholar Dr. Ebi Junaedi from University of Indonesia was the speaker at the session which is a collaboration between the Indonesian Embassy and the University of Peshawar.
Dr. Ebi Junaedi in his elaborate presentation said that the Muslims had the fattest growth rate in the world which will make people adherent to Islam world’s largest group and the Islam as the world’s largest religion by 2075. He mentioned that majorities in emerging economies connect belief in God and morality. Sharing statistics he informed the audience that in Muslim countries there were growing awareness about the Shariah Laws such as in Indonesia where 74 percent population favored Shariah laws in their country, 84 percent in Pakistan while interestingly in the case of Russia it was as high as 40 percent which created a great domestic and global demand for various Halal consumer market.
He informed that Indonesia ranked four in global Islamic economy and it was the most Muslim populated country where rapid expansion of the middle class has helped to develop the halal consumer market where an estimated 90 million Indonesians were expected to join the consuming class by 2030.
Dr. Junaedi also shared Top 15 global Islamic economy indicator score in terms of Islamic Finance, Halal Food, Muslim-Friendly Travel, Modest Fashion and Pharma & Cosmetics and discussed in detail about the challenges of the Islamic and Halal Products and how innovative products and emerging technologies were creating more space for the Islamic Financing and helping it catching up with the conventional banking.
Ambassador Adam Tugio in his remarks mentioned the potential of Islamic economy noting the huge market of OIC consisting of 1.9 Billion population whereby 1.2 Billion of it residing in D-8 economy and the rest are living in Europe and North America. D-8 which is an organization for development cooperation among Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey, could serve a unique platform to unlock the potentials of Islamic economy and halal markets noting that the Organisation has just concluded PTA among its members.
He expressed hope that economic cooperation platforms of OIC and D-8 could adopt necessary resolution and issue guidelines in facilitating cooperation among the member countries, stressing that Muslim countries should be fully integrated in to the global economy to be able to reap the benefits of the globalization. He further opined that countries like Indonesia and Pakistan and other countries such as in D-8 could find common grounds and build partnerships to expand not only their bilateral cooperation but also significantly increase their share in the global market.
Responding to questions on bilateral trade between Indonesia and Pakistan, the envoy underscored the need for the two countries to diversity their traded product ranges to increase their bilateral trade volume. The Envoy identified the garments and apparel sector as another potential area because Indonesia was well known for exporting raw material for garment such as vinyls and polyester while Pakistan was producing high class garments and apparel. He proposed that the two countries could team up and have joint ventures in producing nice clothing markets for healthcare workers, firefighters and many other specialized areas and services.
He emphasized that the Islamic financing market and Halal products could serve a key element to complement Indonesia -Pakistan PTA arrangement that the two countries have signed while it also provided a great scope to the OIC and D-8 Countries to be part of the global supply chain.
The Ambassador observed that the countries in the west such as UK was way ahead in realizing the potential of the Islamic Financing System and Halal Market so much so that Muslim from many countries were coming to Durham University to study Islamic financing while Muslims Countries themselves were lagging way behind. He stressed on the need to create innovative Halal and Islamic Financing Products and also standardize them to ensure their quality and international acceptability and recognition. He opined that the Islamic lifestyle was one of the way to proceed ahead to strengthen economic and trade ties among Muslim countries. “It was high time therefore for the OIC and D-8 Countries to realize the potential of the Islamic and Halal Market to become major player of the market instead of staying as consumers”, the Envoy said in his remarks.
