Islamic finance to the fore

JARKATA: Islamic finance aims to move into infrastructure, as governments and bankers plan a new organisation to handle deals and expand efforts to use sukuk for projects in majority-Muslim countries.

The asset-backed nature of Islamic finance should in theory make it ideal to build highway networks, ports and other big projects. An estimated US$800bil worth of infrastructure financing will be needed each year in Asia over the next decade, according to the Asian Development Bank.