REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - The new Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI), Agus Martowardojo, is ambitious to transform Indonesia to be the center of excellent sharia andt takes over the position from Malaysia. The House of Representative confirmed Martowardojo as the new governor of central bank, to replace Darmin Nasution. 

"Indonesia is the biggest Muslim country in the world. BI must play an active role to make Indonesia as International Islamic Banking Hall in the world," Martowardojo said after fit and proper test on Monday.

Martowardojo has three short term policy. Enhancing human resources on Islamic banking quantitatively is one of them. He said that the best way to reach the target was to encourage Islamic finance, research, and link and match with education.

The second policy is to bring forward innovation and service. A practition group on Islamic banking is needed to help developing innovation. The last policy that he offers is socializing and educating people on Islamic banking.

Islamic banking grows very well in Indonesia. The total asset of Islamic banks is 195 trillion IDR with the growth of 34 percent year on year (yoy). Islamic banks grow in the average of 40 percent for the last five years. Meanwhile, conventional banks can only grow to 16 percent per year. However, the access to Islamic banking is still limited. Indonesia needs an instrument, such as monetary control.

A member of Commission XI at the House of Representatives, Mohammad Hatta, said the upcoming BI Governor must build Islamic banks that are separated from conventional ones. "Therefore, conventional Islamic banks cannot take the advantage from pure Islamic banks," he said.

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