“Most investors in the Middle East are certainly looking for Islamic-compliant business in countries that aren’t majority Muslim,” Ashraf Bin Md Hashim, head of consultancy at the International Sharia Research Academy for Islamic Finance, told the Phnom Penh Post.
Speaking on the sidelines of Cambodia’s first seminar on Islamic finance, hosted by Cambodian Intelligent Investor Organization on 10 March in Phnom Penh, Hashim said the Islamic finance is almost nonexistent among Cambodia’s Muslims.
Muslims make up around two per cent of Cambodia’s population of 13 million which is mainly Buddhist.
“There’s a demand from the Muslim community here,” Cambodian Intelligent Investor Organization CEO Sles Nazy told the newspaper. “I have seen some problems because right now Muslims can’t follow Islamic law when they borrow money, even if they want to.” According to Nazy, Islamic finance would most likely first appear in Cambodia in the form of Shari’ah-compliant microfinance while Hashim sees the potential for a bank to open an Islamic window.
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