Indonesian state-owned digital payment platform LinkAja is looking to tap into the sharia economy (business and financial activities that are in accordance with Islamic rules), after it obtained a certificate of sharia suitability from the National Sharia Council at the Islamic Digital Day conference held last Monday in the country’s capital Jakarta.
The certificate is one of the requirements to release a new service called LinkAja Sharia, which is expected to be launched in November 2019.
LinkAja’s CEO Danu Wicaksana said in an official statement that LinkAja Sharia is an initiative to support the government in improving the competitiveness of the sharia economy and its ecosystem in Indonesia and abroad.
LinkAja Sharia will have several differences from the regular LinkAja digital payment system. For example, it will collect customer’s funds via sharia-compliant banks only. The service is also expected to support the national non-cash movement in the country.
LinkAja claims to have 30 million users on its regular platform, and targets to obtain at least one million users of LinkAja sharia by the end of 2020.
Earlier this year, Indonesian President Joko Widodo launched the country’s first master plan 2019-2024 for a sharia economy, which aims at converting Indonesia into the center of the shariah economy in the world, considering that the country has the largest Muslim population in the world.
One of the main pillars of the plan is strengthening the sharia economy digital ecosystem with the e-commerce trading system, to promote Indonesia’s halal goods and services.