Heaptalk, Jakarta — The 10th Indonesia Sharia Economic Festival (ISEF 2023) officially opened from October 25th – 29th, 2023, at Jakarta Convention Center (JCC). Inaugurated by Indonesia’s Vice President, Ma’ruf Amin, he appreciated the implementation of ISEF, which is consistently carried out yearly to increase literacy and share of the Sharia economic market in Indonesia.
In his opening remarks, he delivered that Sharia literacy and finance level in the country is relatively low, only reaching 23.3%, impacting a small-scale achievement of the new Sharia financial market share of around 10.9%. For this reason, by implementing this event, Ma’ruf Amin expects to boost Indonesia’s Sharia economic and financial inclusion enhancement by at least 50%.
“The greater the Sharia economic and financial literacy, the greater the acceptance and use of Sharia economic and financial products by the community, which will lead to an increase in the contribution of this sector to the national economy.”
Furthermore, reflecting on the development of the national Sharia economy over the past four years, he perceived that technology and digitalization had a critical role in boosting the Sharia economic and financial sector to be more adaptive and transformative.
Therefore, the Vice President appealed to all Sharia economic practitioners to continue advancing the digitalization ecosystem as the primary factor for the Sharia economy and halal industry, one of which is through developing the One Waqf application, which concurrently launched in the 10th ISEF 2023.
Ma’ruf also emphasized Indonesia’s Halal industry amplification by expediting Halal certification, strengthening regulatory incentives and infrastructure for Halal Industrial Zones, and increasing the scale of Sharia financial financing and downstream Halal products for small and large scales.
He also called on policymakers to continue to promote the expansion of the market share of the Sharia financial sector, one of which is supporting the implementation of the Financial Sector Development and Strengthening Law.
“I also hope that all stakeholders can complete the Sharia Economy and Finance Masterplan 2024 – 2029 by integrating it into national development planning documents, both the RPJMN, RKP and Regional RKP.” Vice President affirmed. (10/27)
In collaboration with Halal Expo Indonesia (HEI), ISEF is one of the strategic efforts to strengthen the chain of the Sharia economic ecosystem in the archipelago. Targeting the B2B and B2C segments, this event features various programs, including International Conferences, Business Matchmaking, and Business Forums.
Adopting the Accelerating Sharia Economy and Finance Through Digitalization for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth as the theme, this Sharia economy exhibition presents 793 exhibitors locally and around 20 exhibitors internationally. Multiple enticing agendas also enliven this event, including 62 seminar series, talk shows, and other events involving 22 Ministries, 37 associations, 1,003 industry players, and 46 international partners. Around 40,000 visitors, including buyers and investors, are targeted to come in ISEF 2023.
