Minister embraces 'much-needed' sharia commodity trading

Trade minister Mari Elka Pangestu gave a warm welcome to the newly launched sharia-based commodity trading on Thursday, saying that such kinds of trading were needed to accommodate the growing sharia-banking sector.

“At the moment sharia-based commodity trading is much needed considering the fact that sharia banking is also growing and will need shariah-based products of which they can take advantage to manage liquidity,” Mari said, as quoted by kompas.com.

The sharia-commodity trading was established after cooperation by the National Syariah Board of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) and the Jakarta Futures Exchange (JFX), as well as support from Bank Indonesia and the Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Board.

Mari said that Indonesia must take maximum advantage of the country’s sharia market to help it become a more competitive international player.

“Indonesia, as the country with potentially the biggest sharia market in the world and with one of the world’s largest supply of commodities, must make use of its superiority to raise competition in the global stage,” she said.