Late to the party

Late to the party

The $2 trillion global Halal industry is growing and companies in Southeast Asia are taking the lead in globalising halal standards. Where are the Middle Eastern companies in all of this?

April 5, 2011 2:22 by Precious de Leon

This can only mean that the longer companies in the Middle East delay their involvement in setting up these standards, the harder it’ll be to catch up.

Already, different countries have different regulations and laws pertaining to Islamic Banking. In the UK, for example, the Finance Act 2003 introduced relief to prevent multiple payment of Stamp Duty Land Tax on Islamic mortgages. And in Malaysia, the Government Investment Act 1983 was enacted empower the Government of Malaysia to issue Government Investment Issue (GII), which are government securities issued based on Sharia principles.

“To ensure that financial institutions in the Middle East will be successful in taking their products and services abroad, it is important that they implement comprehensive training for their employees,” said Dr. Linda Eagle, Founder and President, The Edcomm Group Banker’s Academy.

And it isn’t hard to see that this is only the beginning. In Kipp’s view, the wheels will keep turning and it’s up to Middle East companies they choose whether to lose space on the bandwagon or to jump at the perfect opportunity to lead the conversation.

An easy decision, Kipp thinks, so what’s the hold up?

Pages: 1 2 3

Tags: Banking, gcc, Gulf, halal, investment, Malaysia, Middle East, Philippines, Sharia, UK

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1 Comment

Mamdooh Al-Radadi on April 6, 2011 4:34 am

I think that even in the Islamic banking area as you mention with all teh potential there is much room to grow.
Having worked last year in a leading Islamic Bank I see most of the Islamization of financial products and services takes forever to roll out and in many cases outsourced.
So let me say that again; Slow, no creativity to market such powerful product offerings, benchmarks are unrealistic in the shifting.

If were going to start looking at food items, then yes the far east rules in this area, although we are the Islamic capital.

Many factors cause this to happen and the first in my point of view is educating the customer on the benefits and ease of use, the only users are high profile companies..get the customers on board and watch this sky rocket! thanks for the usual great articles.