Indonesia has fallen behind its neighbours such as Malaysia and Singapore in developing Islamic finance, which has seen buoyant growth in the past few years on the back of the petrodollar boom in the Middle East and growing wealth in Asia.
The most populous Muslim nation raised 4.7 trillion rupiah ($504.3 million) from the sales of its first Islamic bond in late August, short of its 5 trillion rupiah target.
Analysts say although the sales were lower than targeted with domestic investors buying almost 90 percent of the bonds, it signalled strong growth potential for Islamic finance in the country of 226 million people where about 85 percent are Muslim.
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