Opportunities for Islamic Finance: A New Zealand Perspective
Mohamed Nalar, Head of Business Performance
Auckland Council
April 2012
The time is right for New Zealand to structure a more focused economic engagement with the Muslim world. Mohamed Nalar provides an insight into the current landscape.
A number of initiatives and efforts in the past to open the New Zealand (NZ) market place for Shariah compliant investment products and services have not produced a favourable outcome. The approach has been to attract Islamic financial services to meet the needs (mainly home financing) of the 50,000 plus Muslims living in NZ as opposed to attracting Islamic capital and investment to some of the world-leading business sectors here. Given the size of the Muslim population in NZ, it is relatively easy to conclude why this approach has not produced any results to date.
