Dow Jones GCC Islamic Index, Malaysian Islamic finance, SCOMI & Indonesian power sukuk

"Dow Jones plans GCC Islamic regional index", GulfNews, October 6, 2006

Five days after Global Investment House announced that it launched a GCC Islamic Index Fund, Dow Jones has jumped in as well with a commitment to launch its own fund. The Global Director of the Dow Jones Islamic Market index, Rushdi Siddiqui, is quoted saying that ""We just launched an Islamic index for Kuwait. The Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIM) Kuwait is our initial attempt to create GCC Islamic country indices and then roll up to GCC Islamic regional index and GCC regional sector indices,"

"Malaysia shifts to high gear in bid for Islamic banking to reach 2010 goal", Brunei Times, October 6, 2006

At a media event in Malaysia, the head of the Kuwait Finance House, Salman Younis predicted that Islamic banking will make up 20 percent of all banking within Malaysia by 2010. The industry has been growing rapidly since it began in 1983. The share of all banking captured by the Islamic banking industry was 10 percent in 2003 and by midyear 2006 had risen to 12 percent. The government of Malaysia has been actively working to make the country a center in Islamic banking by liberalizing the industry and offering tax cuts and other incentives to benefit users and providers of Islamic banking. It has also moved towards issuing new licenses for Islamic insurance (takaful).

"Scomi unit plans Islamic bond", Business Times (Malaysia), October 6, 2006

SCOMI Group Bhd plans to issue RM630 million (US$170 million) in Shari'ah-compliant Murabahahnotes once it obtains regulatory approval to do so.

ASIA DEBT PIPELINE: Landbank Marketing; PLN Bookbuilding", EasyBourse, October 6, 2006

The Indonesian power company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has plans to issue US Dollar conventional bonds, contrary to their original plans. The switch was due to unresolved issues with taxation of Shari'ah-compliant bonds. The Indonesian government had hoped that the PLN issue would be a prelude to its own planned issue of Shari'ah-compliant bonds, something the government of the country with the largest Muslim population has yet to do.