Vice President Ma’ruf Amin is optimistic that Indonesia will become the world’s largest halal producer in 2024 due to the rapid growth of the domestic sharia economy. At the inauguration ceremony of the South Sumatra Regional Committee for Islamic Economics and Finance (KDEKS) and the South Sumatra Islamic Economic Community (MES) in Palembang, Wednesday (7/9/2022), Ma’ruf said, “Currently, all the stakeholders are buzzing Islamic economics as an economic jihad carried out in the congregation.”
The Vice President said that economic jihad does exist in Islam. Economic jihad explains how to revive, build, and fulfill the needs of life according to the demands of the Shari’a. One of the great Islamic scholars even called this economic jihad the great jihad, and that is how a Muslim earns his living by maintaining the rights of Allah SWT, and is not negligent in carrying out his orders. At this present, Islamic finance as a new stream of the national economy has received international recognition and the attention of domestic stakeholders. Indonesia is considered successful in recording progress and achievements in the contribution of the halal economy chain to GDP which is currently increasing.
The increase occurred in line with the growth of the Muslim population and the halal lifestyle. Consistently, Indonesia has applied sharia economics to address contemporary issues that touch the benefit of the people, starting from empowering the people’s economy for equitable welfare to the release of green sukuk as a financing solution with an inclusive and sustainable sharia scheme. “One of the goals of sharia is to build a decent life. How to fulfill things that are urgent, primary, secondary, and even tertiary, is one of the big purposes of Islamic law,” he said. Through KDEKS and MES, Ma’ruf hopes that various development targets and sharia economic work programs that are related to the halal product industry, sharia financial services, community social funds, business and entrepreneurship as well as MSMEs can be achieved. Moreover, he added that Islamic boarding schools can become a center for community economic empowerment through a program namely OPOV (One Pesantren One Product) in various areas such as East Java, West Java, and South Kalimantan.
