IDNEWSNOW.COM, Jakarta – Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said the government would boost the exports of its halal products by capitalizing on its membership in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
“But we can also ramp up [exports] and make penetration, even into non-OIC members with significant Muslim population segments, and their demand for goods and services is also on the rise,” she said when opening the Sharia Economy and Finance Research Forum on Monday, September 21, 2020.
She said the country’s 2018 exports to OIC countries reached US$45 billion or 12.5 percent from Indonesia’s total trade of US$369 billion. “We hope in the years to come the growth can be preserved,” she said.
However, Sri also underlined that COVID-19 had profoundly affected the economic performance of countries across the globe and thus posed grueling challenges—including those pertaining to demand for Indonesian exports.
Sri asserted the government would continue to improve the country’s sharia economic ecosystem with instrument policies. “Both in the sharia finance industry and the real industry,” she said.
Sri Mulyani explained the estimated number of Muslims around the world reached 1.8 billion, accounting for 24 percent of the global population, with total expenditures in the neighborhood of US$2.2 trillion.
Read: Sri Mulyani Hopes Halal Certification Won’t Be New Burden for Industry
MUHAMMAD HENDARTYO
