Mega Matrix, Ihsan Dhahab to develop Islamic precious metals ecosystem

Mega Matrix has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ihsan Dhahab in January to finance and operate a an Islamic precious metals ecosystem. 

Under the MoU, the parties agreed to collaborate on a range of projects, including:

- An integrated precious metals special economic zone located in the Middle East, primarily in KSA, Qatar or other locations, dedicated to the entire precious metals value chain, including refining, storage, trading, and manufacturing

- To design, structure, develop, and launch a shari'ah-compliant, real-world asset (RWA) gold-backed token and stablecoin 

- To establish and operate a shari'ah-compliant digital exchange for the trading of precious metals, bullion, and other RWA-based financial instruments

- To create an Islamic digital bullion bank, providing shari'ah-compliant financing, vaulting, logistics, and other banking services for the precious metals ecosystem

- To collaboratively identify, assess, and develop other innovative fintech projects that align with the strategic objectives of the parties.

As part of the collaboration, Mega Matrix will draw on its technical experience in stablecoins and Web 3 to provide advisory support for capital raising and financing, including equity investments, debt arrangements and other compliant financial instruments. Mega Matrix will also provide expertise in corporate structuring, financial modelling, capital markets strategy and international governance standards, and will contribute its technology, intellectual property and global Blockchain and digital asset network to support project implementation and scalable development.

Ihsan Dhahab will act as the founders group and promoter, leveraging their local presence and market knowledge in KSA, Qatar and the wider region to provide strategic direction, sector expertise in Islamic finance and precious metals markets, and to lead regulatory approvals, licensing and day-to-day operations following project commencement.

Yucheng Hu, CEO of MPU commented: "Partnering with Ihsan Dhahab that has deep local experience and resources in the Middle East to develop the precious metals RWA sector represents a measured extension of MPU's stablecoin and its governance token DAT strategy. MPU is contributing to the development of global digital financial infrastructure while broadening its activities within the stablecoin and Web 3 landscape."

DAT stands for digital asset treasury. 

Emirates Islamic opens new forex counter at Al Maktoum International Airport

Source: Emirates Islamic. Emirates Islamic’s Foreign Exchange Counter at Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central.

Emirates Islamic today announced the opening of a foreign exchange (FX) counter at Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central. The new FX counter, located at the airport’s departure lounge, will enable travellers and tourists to exchange up to 19 currencies at highly competitive rates.

In addition to Al Maktoum International Airport, the bank operates a FX counter at Port Rashid Cruise Terminal. Foreign exchange and remittance services are an important aspect of Emirates Islamic’s retail product suite, with the bank offering regular seasonal promotions and competitive rates on the currencies available.

Faisal Aqil, Deputy CEO - Consumer Wealth Management, Emirates Islamic, said: “Al Maktoum International Airport is becoming an increasingly busy destination and is expected to handle over 26 million passengers by 2017. We are extremely pleased to open an Emirates Islamic counter to serve the needs of travellers using the airport. As part of our strategy to expand our foreign exchange offerings, we plan to open more counters at high-traffic locations such as malls and airports, as well as continue offering the best offers and rates to our customers.”

Applications open for Australia-Indonesia Muslim Exchange Program 2016

The Australian embassy in Indonesia has announced that applications are now open to young Indonesian Muslim leaders interested in participating in this year’s Australia-Indonesia Muslim Exchange Program (MEP).

Funded by the Australian Government and run through the Australia-Indonesia Institute (AII), MEP was established in 2002 as one of the AII’s flagship programmes. The MEP for young leaders aims to build links between Muslim communities in Australia and Indonesia and promotes greater understanding and recognition of religion and its role in each country. So far, 52 Australians and 132 Indonesians have participated.

The MEP involves two-week visits to Australia by groups of young Indonesian Muslim community leaders and two-week visits to Indonesia by their Australian counterparts. These young leaders include writers, academics and workers in non-governmental and religious organisations. The program is designed to build greater awareness among the Indonesian participants of Australia’s multicultural society and in turn a greater awareness among the Australian participants of the nature of mainstream Islam in Indonesia.

Candidates are interviewed and selected by an independent selection panel based on their professional and social networks and their capacity to act as ambassadors and participate in interfaith dialogue.

Interested?

The requirements for the Indonesian participants are:

• Male Indonesian applicants must be under 40 years of age and for females must be under 45 years of age.
• Demonstrated fluency in English through TOEFL (international or institutional standard) with minimum score of 450; priority is given for scores above 500.
• A completed application form. Applications must be lodged by Friday 11 December 2015 at 23:59 WIB. Applications must be emailed to panitiamep2015 at paramadina.ac.id with a maximum data size of 15 MB. Applications sent via post or mail will not be accepted.

Questions can be emailed to panitiamep2015 at paramadina.ac.id.

Thomson Reuters launches Islamic Agribusiness Index for Asia Pacific excluding Japan

Thomson Reuters has launched the Islamic Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Islamic Agribusiness Index, covering 30 shari'ah compliant companies in the Asia Pacific region with revenues derived directly from agricultural products. It is the first index of its kind in the Asia Pacific region, the company said.

The Thomson Reuters Islamic Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Agribusiness Index combines Thomson Reuters transparent rules-based methodology with IdealRatings' expertise and research-based approach to shari'ah-compliant screening.

In addition, the index uses Thomson Reuters Business Classification (TRBC) to select companies engaged in upstream agricultural activities. TRBC has five levels of classification enabling a more accurate and granular selection of companies. This allows Thomson Reuters to systematically include industries and business activities which derive revenue from agricultural produce such as dairy producers or fertiliser while excluding activities related to agricultural product manufacturing which are not considered to be part of the agribusiness sector.

Thomson Reuters has supported Islamic finance for over 30 years, offering shari'ah compliant investment and trading solutions for financial professionals. Said Stephan Flagel, Head of Indices at Thomson Reuters: “The index provides rules-based, liquid and transparent exposure to companies within the fast growing Asian agribusiness sector. Bringing the efficiency and transparency expected in advanced financial markets to the rapidly growing Islamic finance industry requires the provision of deep and reliable market indicators, benchmarks and terms and conditions.”

The index will be tracked by an exchange-traded fund (ETF) provided by i-VCAP Management which was launched on the same day and is named MyETF Thomson Reuters Asia Pacific ex-Japan Islamic Agribusiness. The newly-launched ETF will offer investors exposure to the performance of the index and is the first agricultural-related Islamic ETF available globally and the first Islamic sector ETF available in the region, adding to ETFs worth US$2 billion based on Thomson Reuters indices globally.

The Thomson Reuters Islamic Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Agribusiness Index is calculated in real time and will be available through Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Philippine Stock Exchange releases list of shari'ah-compliant listed firms

The Philippine Stock Exchange has updated its quarterly list of Shari'ah-compliant securities for the period of January to June 2015. The list is released by the 5th trading day of the month after each quarter.

Third party IdealRatings screens listed companies in accordance with shari'ah compliance as stipulated by the Accounting and Auditing Organization Institutions. The companies must meet specific criteria, such as ensuring that the nature of the company's primary business does not involve conventional interest-based lending, financial institutions, insurance, derivatives, pork, alcohol, tobacco, arms and weapons, embryonic hotels, gambling, casinos, music, cinema and adult entertainment. If revenue is derived by the company from such prohibited businesses, it must not exceed 5% of its gross revenues. Other regulations govern interest-bearing debt, interest-bearing deposits and accounts receivables.

A total of 53 companies were in the list, including Globe Telecom, Jollibee Foods and Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, and Robinsons Land.

Interested?

View the full list

posted from Bloggeroid

International Islamic Trade, Business and Tourism Fair 2015 to be held 30 January

Source: i-TRADEBIZ.

The International Islamic Trade, Business and Tourism Fair 2015 (i-TRADEBIZ 2015) will debut in Malaysia at the Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 30 January 2015. 

The three-day event is organised by the Ministry of Tourism & Culture through its Islamic Tourism Center and Malaysian People Unity Welfare Foundation (Yayasan Kebajikan Perpaduan Rakyat Malaysia) and supported by Ministry of International Trade (MITI) with the theme of Trade, Business & Tourism. Participation is expected from Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries, ASEAN countries and areas where there are Muslim minorities. 

The event will be the launchpad for the Malaysia, China and Muslim Countries' Chamber of Commerce (MCMCC). The fair's Secretariat Chairman Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman said the chamber of commerce is a joint initiative from the secretariat as well as from China's International New Silk Road Cultural Committee (ICNSRC) Chairman Dato' Paduka Tan Thian Lai. 

Source: i-TRADEBIZ.
Abdul Halim.

"Malaysia has good relationship with the OIC and we want to use Malaysia as the standard of communication between the countries," said Abdul Halim. "The main objective for the establishment of the MCMCC is to make Malaysia a hub between China and Muslim countries. We will promote Malaysia as the Asian and global hub for China's cultural, trade and commerce activities with Muslim countries."

 

At a press conference to announce the fair earlier this month, Abdul Halim said the event is inspired by Admiral Cheng Ho's voyages and the silk route. "The legacy continues here in Malaysia with the formation of the MCMCC (Dewan perniagaan Malaysia, China dan Negara-negara islam), which was initiated to unite all Muslim and non-Muslim countries to build a strong Asian trading network," he said. 

Abdul Halim said China as the strongest economy in Asia should take the lead in uniting Asia, while Malaysia as a strong member of the OIC can acting as the hub for business, culture and tourism between Muslim nations, minority Muslim nations and China. He also noted that Admiral Cheng Ho, a Muslim, had visited 45 nations and returned to China with knowledge, culture and trade agreements. 

"The intention of this exhibition is to create this awareness and relationship. We have about 250 booths with exhibitors from manufacturing, construction, trading, plantations, investments, tourism, electronics, silk and ceramics," he said. 

The secretariat expects some 30,000 visitors to visit the fair, which will have daily workshops along with business matching on the final day of the exhibition. International VIP guests will include senior government officials from Ningxia, China and from Indonesia. 

Dato' Paduka Tan, who is also the Co-chairman of i-TRADEBIZ 2015 and Chairman of the MCMCC, said in a statement in early January that the event is endorsed by the Chinese government which will act as facilitators to business partnerships and trade opportunities in exporting and importing of products and services between the countries. The ICNSRC will also be present to facilitate discussions on national infrastructure projects and development programmes.

"Through the MCMCC we are organising business matching activities," Abdul Halim said during the press conference. "The list is very encouraging and expanding. Since the President, Vice President and CEO of many of the participating China companies will be coming, we looking forward to new ventures, contracts and partnerships."