Call To Boost Islamic Multi-Currency Financing

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 (Bernama) -- Malaysia needs to boost Islamic multi-currency financing for industries such as infrastructure and energy to tap into Asean's capital market. Malaysian Minister of Finance II, Johari Abdul Ghani, said Asean is home to a rapidly-growing capital market, in which total market capitalisation amounted to about US$2.3 trillion (US$1 = RM4.06), or 90 per cent, of gross domestic product in 2015. "With Asean households having one of the highest saving rates at about 30 per cent, there is tremendous opportunity to bring the principled nature of shariah-investing to the 600 million people in Asean," he said at the launch of shariah investing on Bursa Malaysia-i here Monday. Johari said Malaysia has the expertise, innovations and deal-flow that could positively shape Asean's financial landscape to be fair, just and more transparent. He said Malaysia would continue to demonstrate leadership by injecting innovative solutions in the Islamic markets and strengthening the ecosystem especially in "maqasid al-shariah" (objective of shariah). In this context, it is encouraging to Bursa Malaysia (Malaysia's Stock Exchange) taking this leading role in championing exchange-based shariah-compliant investing and providing new options for those who wish to invest based on the principles of Islamic finance, he said. "The launching of Bursa Malaysia-i is a step in the right direction towards ensuring Malaysia remains the world's leading, fully integrated, Islamic investing marketplace, which offers complete set of Islamic financial market instruments," he said. Bursa Malaysia has on Monday launched Bursa Malaysia-i to deliver the world's first end-to-end integrated Islamic securities exchange platform, offering investors the choice to invest and trade Shariah-compliant products via a Shariah-compliant platform. The Bursa Malaysia-i incorporates the full range of Shariah-compliant exchange-related services including listing, trading, clearing, settlement and depository services to underscore the exchange's leadership as the global marketplace for Shariah listing and investments. --BERNAMA