The 12th WIEF Press Conference Summarizes Triumphs & Challenges
Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia Sri Mulyani Indrawati, together with Chairman of WIEF Foundation Tun Musa Hitam, addressed a Press Conference held in the Assembly 3 room, following the Closing Session of the 12th WIEF in Jakarta.
WIEF Foundation Tun Musa thanked the Indonesian government for its intense effort in identifying issues to be addressed in the forum. He also stated he regarded the forum as being highly successful in a number of ways, recollecting the time in 2005 when the Foundation started the forum, attended by only about 400 participants.
Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati thanked the forum, as a high level platform for state leaders, industrialists, academics and scholars, professionals, innovators and investors to explore opportunities for business partnerships in the Muslim community.
The Minister observed how the three-day engagement witnessed participants getting to know each other, sharing brilliant ideas, performing the best of creative work, resulting in a number of business agreements being concluded, including MoU signings.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati said takeaways from this event include the need to address the lack of knowledge about Islamic financial products and the inability of financial firms to appreciate long-term prospects offered by halal-related industries. She also mentioned the need to strengthen long-term infrastructure financing mechanism, including asset-backed securities. Additionally, building better collaborations between grass-root businesses and mainstream industries are also needed to be addressed.
The forum also called on authorities and policymakers to promptly develop regulations and incentives to establish a long-term infrastructure pool of funds to bridge the gap between demand and supply in Islamic financing for infrastructure.
There is also a need for greater collaboration between grass-root businesses like garment manufacture and food selling, and mainstream industry, to further foster innovation. Islamic fashion and halal culinary can benefit, rising to a higher level, should successful collaboration be concluded.
