The Lord Mayor of London  H.E, Alderman Nick Anstee Spoke at A Half-Day Seminar on “Sharing Experience Between Indonesia-United Kingdom in Developing Islamic Banking” in Jakarta

A half-day seminar with the topic "Sharing Experience of Indonesia-United Kingdom (UK) in the Developing Islamic Banking" was held on May 31, 2010. The seminar was part of a series of activities of the Lord Mayor of The City of London HE Alderman Nick Anstee during his visit to Jakarta.  The seminar was participated by representatives from the government agencies, Islamic banking, banking associations, academics, the parliament and other community organizations. The seminar was fully supported by the UK Trade and Investment as well as by the British Embassy in Jakarta.

The seminars aim to strengthen cooperation in the financial sector between Indonesia and the UK as well as to facilitate information sharing on the strategic issues in developing Islamic banking, including the role of regulators and the parlement in encouraging the development of Islamic banking.

The seminar has provided a platform for further cooperation between the Islamic financial industries in the two countries, the United Kingdom as the Islamic financial centre in the western world and Indonesia as the country with the highest Moslem population with a growing interest in Islamic finance and banking. Indonesia is developing its Islamic finance Industry to become the focal point of Islamic finance in the region. It is part of our aspiration that the Indonesian Islamic finance industry could offer wider investment opportunities to the global market. A strategic partnership between Indonesia and the UK in this field can be expected as the follow up of this seminar.

In developing the Islamic banking, currently Bank Indonesia has also been engaged in several partnership program with international community, such as the APRACA (Asia Pacific Rural and Agricultural) countries whereby Bank Indonesia has been appointed as Center of Excellence for Islamic Banking, and the Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED) as a training provider for Islamic finance, while also hosting such secondment programs for officers from other central banks.