Realizing Sharia Lifestyle Need Supported Demand

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Financial Services Authority (OJK) Wimboh Santoso said efforts to create "lifestyle" or lifestyles that support sharia economy ecosystems need to be supported by public demand in related industrial products.

"If you want to 'lifestyle' (sharia), then there must be demand. The potential is large for the demand of sharia industry sectors," said Wimboh in public discussion in Jakarta on Friday (3/11/2017)

Sharia industry products include halal food, financial services, recreation, clothing, cosmetics, and medicines.

Wimboh sees that the sharia economy in Indonesia, as one of the countries with the largest Muslim population, is still lagging behind other countries.

This can be seen from the Global Islamic Economy Indicator Score 2016-2017 which shows the competitiveness of Indonesia's sharia economy is only ranked 10, or left behind from Malaysia and countries in the Arabian Peninsula.

In addition, Indonesia's sharia financial competitiveness is only ranked seventh, also still lags behind Malaysia and countries in the Arabian Peninsula.

"Malaysia is further ahead of us, but there is indeed a big commitment from its government to develop sharia economy," said Wimboh.

He especially highlighted the opportunities for developing the Islamic financial system in Indonesia, where the first stage that needs to be done is to improve the living standards of the community to bring the demand for sharia industry.

Efforts to improve the living standard are realized through the development of Islamic financial institutions which then hope can stimulate the community into the sharia sector.

Then, continued Wimboh, sharia economic development can also be done by penetrating the already established community to start a sharia lifestyle.

"Right now we are starting to improve in the form of 'rebranding', the more important is how to create sharia business," he said.