KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Qatar can explore the possibilities of establishing a joint initiative to develop Islamic Finance 2.0 which is the continuation of the current Islamic finance system.
National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (NCCIM) vice president, Rizal Faris Mohideen Abdul Kader, said the rise of financial technology and digital economy provided new challenges and attractive opportunities for Islamic finance which could not be addressed by the conventional method.
“We need a new approach – which we call Islamic Finance 2.0 – that will enable the development of new business models to surf the rapidly growing new economy of Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean),” he said in his opening remarks at the Malaysia-Qatar Economic Forum here yesterday.
He said with the biggest population of Muslims in the world and also the fastest growing Muslim middle class, Asean was the best market place for Islamic finance and Malaysia was best positioned to be its innovation and development hub.
Rizal Faris Mohideen, who is also the President of Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia, also mooted the idea of creating a supply chain innovation fund to support Malaysia-Qatar joint ventures in developing new supply chains into the Asean.
“This fund will help companies develop business intelligence, establish networks and provide risk capital to enable companies to invest in the innovation of supply chains and new businesses,” he said.
He said the fund could be jointly established and managed by the Qatar Chamber and the NCCIM.
Apart from that, he said, Qatari businessmen could use Malaysia as the hub to venture or establish their businesses in the Asean market.
“For this I propose that we create an Asean Gateway Initiative that provides a support platform based in Kuala Lumpur for Qatari businesses wishing to unlock the value of the Asean market,” he said.
Last year, Malaysia-Qatar bilateral trade stood at US$500 million (US$1 = RM4.21). — Bernama