IslamicFinance.de

Indonesia lacks the political commitment needed to develop Islamic finance, causing it to lag behind Malaysia in that area, experts have said. In Malaysia, there is a top-down approach, the government aims to be the global Islamic financial hub," Senior economist for the British Embassy in Jakarta, Edi Wiyono said. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, Islamic finance has grown from the bottom-up, with the public-initiated establishment of Bank Muamalat, the first sharia bank in Indonesia, he added. Indonesia is still the biggest retail sharia market in the world but the contributions of sharia finance in big projects, such as infrastructure, are still lacking.