Indonesia will host the third Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) annual meeting of Sharia economic experts, businesspeople, and Muslim religious scholars in Jakarta on May 25 and 26.

The muzakarah will discuss how to accelerate the development of Islamic banking in the region, executive director of the International Sharia Research Academy in Islamic Finance (ISRA), Mohammad Akram Laldin said Wednesday.

Laldin said Indonesia was chosen to host the third ASEAN muzakarah because the country's Sharia banking has been growing much faster recently.

"We see that Sharia banking in Indonesia is getting bigger and bigger. We want to push such robust development in other ASEAN countries, particularly those having large Muslim populations such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand," he said.

Indonesia started developing Sharia banking in the 1990s.

Until 2004, Islamic banking grew by an average of 60 percent per year in terms of capital growth.

During the last five years, it has decelerated to an average of 46 percent per year, but still higher than the 13 percent growth experienced by the local conventional banks.

Laldin said ISRA, an institution under Bank Negara Malaysia based in Kuala Lumpur, organized the first and second muzakarah in Langkawi and then Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

"The third muzakarah in Jakarta will be unique as it involves the Sharia practitioners to share their views and experiences with other Muslim scholars and experts. At the previous meetings, most of the participants were Muslim leaders," he said.

He noted that around 150 participants will attend from six ASEAN countries to discuss issues such as trading mechanisms, foreign exchange, and swap mechanisms under Islamic financial regulations. (Benget Besalicto Tnb)

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