News

Indonesia hails $6 billion of sukuk in Dubai

IndonesiaIndonesia has celebrated the listing earlier this year of four sovereign sukuk on the Nasdaq exchange in Dubai worth a total of $6 billion, the largest Islamic bond issue by a sovereign issuer in the emirate. Bambang Brodjonegoro, the Indonesian minister of finance, who rang the bell at the Dubai exchange this week, says the country has now issued a total of $7.65 billion of global sukuk. "To date, we can proudly say that Indonesia is a leading sovereign sukuk issuer in the world," he says. The four issuances of sukuk were listed on the Dubai Nasdaq exchange on May 31. They have been seen as part of Indonesia's plan to develop its Islamic finance industry and potentially rival neighbouring Malaysia, which is a key hub for Islamic finance in Asia. Although Indonesia has a population ten times larger than that of Malaysia, its Islamic finance industry is less developed. Only about 5% of Indonesia's domestic banking assets are sharia-compliant while in Malaysia, Islamic banks hold about a fifth of the country's banking assets. In a statement, Dubai Nasdaq says there is now nearly $37 billion of sukuk, by nominal value, listed in Dubai. ©2015 funds global asia

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