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SURABAYA, Indonesia - The Indonesia Sharia Economic Festival (ISEF) 2018 organized by Bank Indonesia (central bank of Indonesia) was held at the in Surabaya, Jakarta between December 11-15 under the theme of "Strengthening National Economic Growth: The Creation of Halal Value Chain and Innovative Vehicles".
The event was opened by Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Pak Darmin Nasution, Bank Indonesia (central bank) Governor Pak Perry Warjiyo, and Governor of East Java, Pak Soekarwo.
Blossom CEO Matthew Joseph Martin shared a presentation on the topic of strengthening Indonesia's capital market with blockchain-based sukuk. Indonesia - which has the world's largest Muslim population - has an active sukuk market, but yet lags behind its neighbor Malaysia.
"Malaysia's sukuk issuance is about five times the amount of Indonesia - but the population of all Malaysia can easily fit just inside Jakarta. Clearly there is a huge opportunity for growth. The adoption of technology like blockchain is critical to elminate current inefficiency in order to increase the new issuances and new investor participation."
Martin noted that the use of blockchain as a platform for sukuk can help broaden the global investor participation to invest in cross-border sukuk: "Using blockchain, the cost is the same for a sukuk unit size of 1 Rupiah or 1 Trillion Rupiah."
Following presentations by a panel of speakers, Mr. Martin was presented with a token of appreciation by Pak Dadang, Director of DEKS Bank Indonesia (Department of Shariah Economy and Finance).
