AI was one of many hottest matters in Kuala Lumpur this week, as leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations, and China met within the Malaysian capital.
But Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for Worldwide Relations on the Ministry of Funding, Sara Al Sayed, is already on the lookout for new partnerships in different sectors.
“When we came here [Kuala Lumpur], we saw there’s a strong emphasis on AI. [But] there’s so many untapped areas that we could potentially collaborate. I do believe agriculture and food security could potentially be a very strong component for collaboration,” Sara mentioned at a panel throughout Fortune’s ASEAN-GCC Financial Discussion board on Wednesday.
The panel was a particular session on enhancing ASEAN-GCC-China Investments and included Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Funding, Commerce and Trade Liew Chin Tong, Maybank’s CEO Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli, and the chairman of China Vitality Engineering Company, Tune Hai Liang.
Saudi Arabia is already collaborating within the agriculture sector. The Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Funding Co. (SALIC), which is owned by the dominion’s Public Funding Fund, has already invested in at the least eight nations, with the full exceeding 27 billion Saudi riyals ($7.2 billion), Sara mentioned on Wednesday.
A part of these investments are in Southeast Asia. In February, SALIC acquired a 44.57% stake in Olam Agri for $1.78 billion, bringing its complete possession stake to 80.01%. Olam Agri is a part of the Olam Group, a Singapore-based agri-business is without doubt one of the few Southeast Asian firms on the Fortune International 500.
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Energy additionally signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia’s Funding Growth Authority to facilitate strategic funding tasks in clear vitality infrastructure throughout Malaysia. The partnership targets 12.5 gigawatts of capability by 2040 and has an estimated funding worth of $10 billion.
Increasing Islamic finance
One other space of collaboration is in finance.
Islamic finance is already large enterprise within the Gulf, notably in nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is the main financial system within the sector, pushed by Maybank, Asia-Pacific’s largest Islamic monetary establishment.
Maybank’s CEO Khairussaleh mentioned that the alternative is “huge” even simply in Southeast Asia.
“The halal economy in ASEAN is about $300 billion, and that’s only about 10% of the total GDP of ASEAN,” Khairussaleh mentioned. “When you look at the population of ASEAN, about 35% is Muslim so there’s a lot of upsides just to cater to the Muslims.”
But past the Muslim inhabitants, Khairussaleh recommended that Islamic finance isn’t solely for Muslims and will attraction to some buyers attributable to its extra ethical-based method.
Islamic wealth administration follows Shariah legislation, which suggests some elements don’t align with typical finance. For instance, Islamic monetary investments keep away from sectors and firms engaged in prohibited actions equivalent to alcohol or playing.
“From the GCC, from China, we know there’s so many affluent people. If we can first provide the awareness and then provide solutions that are of value of them, that can push Islamic finance to the forefront,” Khairussaleh mentioned.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
