Islamic financing play vital role in boosting industries, says CM
BANK Negara Malaysia (BNM), the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM) and the Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA) jointly organised the ‘Islamic Finance Rendezvous Series’ at Eastin Hotel today.
More than 200 multi-national companies (MNCs) and small medium enterprises (SMEs) took part in the series which are set to uplift Islamic financing.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, who officiated the inaugural event, hoped that the Islamic financing would play a pivotal role in boosting the industries in Penang, especially the SMEs.
“This serves as a platform for all of us to engage, meet and deliberate on Islamic financing facilities that are made available here in Penang and the northern region.
“The state government recognises that banks in Malaysia play an important role and provide support to businesses, including SMEs, through wide-ranging offerings of financial products and services such as term financing, trade financing, overdraft and revolving credit.
“We have a very strong presence of SMEs in Penang with over 3,000 SMEs supporting the ecosystem and I hope that the SMEs will continue to grow to support the MNCs and other services sector growth.
“The current situation requires SMEs to upscale their production processes (apart from the human capital), therefore this platform would encourage them to upgrade themselves to join in industrial 4.0,” said Chow in his speech at the launch.
Chow also shared that according to BNM, in 2017, about 290,000 new Islamic financing applications were approved for SMEs amounting to RM73.4 billion.
“Penang is also among the top five states with the highest number of SMEs, accounting for 7.4% (66,921) of total SMEs in Malaysia. Of this, 90% are in the services sector, 6% are in manufacturing while 3% are in construction.
“This reflects the huge untapped potential available in various markets.
“As mentioned by the Bank Negara assistant governor (Adnan Zaylani Mohamad Zahid ) in his speech earlier, there are still many businesses that hardly capitalise on Islamic financing facilities,” added Chow.
Earlier Adnan Zaylani, in his speech, said Islamic financing is not and should not be exclusive to Muslims.
“Many of its underlying ideas, the pursuit of economic justice and risk sharing align with traditional and conventional economic thinking,” Adnan Zaylani said.
Also present were state exco member for International and Domestic Trade, Consumer Affairs and Entrepreneur development Datuk Abdul Halim Hussain, Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia president Datuk Adissadikin Ali and Malaysian Takaful Association chairman Muhammad Fikri Mohamad Rawi.
Story by Tanushalini Moroter
Pix by Adleena Rahayu Ahmad Radzi