The two-day forum aims to raise awareness on Shariah-compliant market-based fundraising for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), especially those in the Halal economy. Such market-based fundraising opportunities via equity crowdfunding (ECF) and peer-to-peer financing (P2P financing) platform operators, provide MSMEs with an alternative and viable option for Shariah-compliant financing.
“We are anticipating greater interest and participation from MSMEs in the Islamic capital market, given the robust framework and facilitative ecosystem for Shariah-compliant fundraising activities,” said Datuk Syed Zaid Albar, Chairman of the SC. “This is part of the SC’s continuous efforts to spur the development of the Islamic capital market, which currently represents more than 60% of the total Malaysian capital market.”
Dato’ Mahmud Abbas, Chairman of HDC said, “As the central coordinator for Malaysia’s Halal ecosystem and with our expansive networking of Halal MSMEs, we hope this two-day forum will enable the SC and HDC to reach a wider pool of MSMEs. We must work to embrace ‘a holistic end-to-end Shariah compliance’ in the halal industry, ensuring not only the production of Halal goods and services, but also a Shariah-compliant business and finance model in its value chain and ecosystem. Our aim is to increase their understanding of market-based Shariah-compliant fundraising activities beyond traditional funding options.”
In conjunction with this inaugural forum, the SC also launched a Shariah Screening Assessment Toolkit for Unlisted Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (Toolkit). The Toolkit is one of the SC’s key developmental initiatives to provide guidance in screening the Shariah status of unlisted MSMEs for ECF and P2P financing platform operators and Shariah advisers.
The SC envisages that with the launch of the Toolkit and access to the Shariah-compliant market, investors will have greater opportunities to diversify their investment universe. It would also enable more diversified Shariah-compliant investment portfolios across asset classes and economic sectors.
The Toolkit includes a series of assessment questions that are based on the Shariah screening methodology for the MSMEs, which has been endorsed by the Shariah Advisory Council (SAC) of the SC.
The Toolkit can be found at https://www.sc.com.my/resources/publications-and-research/toolkit.
