Dr Aishath Muneeza Chairwoman, Maldives Center for Islamic Finance
The head of the Maldives Center for Islamic Finance (MCIF), Dr Aishath Muneeza, talks about how she hopes Islamic finance will help transform the company's economy and where she would like to see GCC companies getting involved
This is a 100% government-owned company. What is your evaluation of the government's attitude towards business and development in this country and how is this reflected in MCIF?
The Maldives is an island nation with limited resources. Everything is imported here, which brings challenges to poverty alleviation and economic empowerment. So, our president said we have to look at how to transform our economy. We need to focus on the necessary sectors for people. For example, the livelihood of the people – what are the factors affecting it? Number one is accessibility to finance. Do we have enough financial institutions to give them personal loans or upgrade their livelihood? And in the Maldives space is limited. To resolve this problem, previous governments have come up with the concept of reclaiming land and extending our airport to about twice the size of Malé, but the most critical challenge we face is funding problems because the domestic financial institutions here are unable to finance such large-scale mega-projects.
If you look at why the MCIF was created, you'll find that the first reason mentioned by the government was to upgrade the livelihood of people through Islamic finance. And being a 100% Muslim country, we have a moral duty not only to support our domestic market with Islamic finance, but also regionally, especially in south Asia. We need to introduce Islamic finance to those countries who have no knowledge of it and become the hub for it. For me, size does not matter.
Although we are small, we have our strengths. Firstly, we are a 100% Muslim country. Secondly, although we have limited resources it doesn't mean we can't attract other financial institutions or resources. Today we are talking about virtual wealth – fintech is there, blockchain technology is coming. We can establish the centres virtually in the cloud. We don't need physical space these days. And finally, even though other countries in the region started Islamic finance before us, those nations did not necessarily have the same government support as we do in the Maldives. We are the first in this region to come out and say: "Our government supports Islamic finance and we want to become the hub because there is political will."
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"The MCIF was created to upgrade the livelihood of people through Islamic finance"
"We are the first country in this region to come out and say: 'Our government supports Islamic finance and we want to become the hub because there is political will"
Do you see the potential for increased cooperation between GCC countries and the Maldives? If so, how and why?
There is always potential for that type of collaboration. The fundamental reason is that we are a Muslim country and culturally we have a lot of similarities with GCC countries. We have an appetite for more financial institutions to set up here so the economic transformation can happen at a fast pace. Right now, the most critical challenge we face is a lack of proper infrastructure to divert financing to our country. The Middle East has surplus capital that could be invested in countries like the Maldives where there are enough good reasons to make investments. A good reason here means that we have something to offer for everyone who wants mutual benefit. One new, interesting example is Shariah-compliant tourism. We need to talk about the Maldives' unique tourism industry and the "the one island, one resort" concept. We are inviting the rest of the world to come and invest in the development of these islands for the high-end market.