REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANDA ACEH  -- The Sharia banking in Indonesia keeps growing, the Head of Financial Division of a state-owned bank, BNI Syariah, Wahyu Afrianto said on Monday.

"Since 2006 until now the growth of Sharia banks keeps increasing significantly compared with conventional banks," he added.

According to him, Sharia banks grow by 20 percent to 50 percent, while the conventional ones grow only 18 percent.

Meanwhile, the Corporate Secretary of PT Bank Aceh, said Bank Aceh which runs based on conventional system will be shifting to Sharia-based system.

Earlier, a sharia financial practitioner, Mohammad B. Teguh, stated the Indonesian government should increase the use of sharia banks, particularly for state expenditure, to help grow its still relatively small share in the domestic banking industry.

The financial authorities have made every effort to boost the sharia financial sector by issuing several regulations, yet the governments support to develop sharia banks is not optimum, he remarked.

"In several countries, the sharia banking industry is growing at a faster pace as their governments use sharia banks. However, the use of sharia banks by our government is still limited," he pointed out.

Teguh noted that the sharia banking industry had grown rapidly not only in predominantly Muslim countries, such as Malaysia, but also in Singapore and Great Britain, which have a heterogeneous community.

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