The development of the global Islamic economy in recent years has shown increasingly significant changes. The sharia-based economy is no longer seen merely as an alternative economic system, but has begun to develop into a new economic force that shapes trade, investment, and cross-border cooperation patterns. In international economic cooperation forums that bring together business actors and stakeholders from Muslim countries, Indonesia has begun to position itself as a country with the potential to become a hub for Islamic countries' markets through the strengthening of its halal industry and national sharia economic ecosystem.
Globally, Indonesia's position in the Islamic economic ecosystem shows promising development. Indonesia has successfully maintained its third place in the 2024/2025 Global Islamic Economy Indicator (GIEI), behind Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. This achievement shows that Indonesia not only has a large halal market, but also a competitive and internationally recognized halal economic foundation.
Indonesia's excellence is evident in its dominance in a number of halal sectors, particularly modest fashion, which ranks first in the world, as well as the growth of the Muslim-friendly tourism, halal cosmetics, and halal pharmaceutical sectors. In terms of financing, Indonesia's Islamic finance market share has reached 30.3 percent of total national financial assets with total assets of Rp12,561 trillion or around 54 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. The halal industry also contributes significantly to the national economy, with the halal value chain contributing 27.34 percent to GDP or around Rp4,832 trillion in the third quarter of 2025. In addition, Indonesia recorded around 40 halal investment transactions worth 1.6 billion US dollars throughout 2023, indicating increasing global investor confidence in the national halal industry.
Indonesia's position as a hub for Islamic countries is supported by its large Muslim population, growing halal production capacity, and geographical location on the international trade route between Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia. This combination of factors provides Indonesia with the opportunity to become a center for distribution and integration of the global halal value chain.
However, a number of challenges still need to be overcome, such as differences in halal certification standards between countries, limitations in halal logistics infrastructure, and access to sharia financing that has not yet fully reached MSME players. The government continues to encourage the strengthening of the national halal ecosystem through the digitization of halal certification through the SIHALAL system, which by the end of 2025 had recorded around 10.99 million certified products. The integration between the halal industry and the Islamic finance sector has also been strengthened to increase production capacity and global competitiveness.
Strengthening Indonesia's position as a global halal market hub also requires improving the quality of human resources, mastering halal industry technology, and strengthening product innovation that can adapt to international market needs. The development of research and the strengthening of collaboration between industry, academia, and government are important factors in creating a halal ecosystem that is adaptive to global economic changes. Without continuous innovation, the competitiveness of the national halal industry has the potential to lag behind other countries that are also competing to strengthen their halal economies.
Therefore, it can be said that despite having a strong foundation in the Sharia economic ecosystem, Indonesia's success in becoming a hub for Islamic countries' markets is highly dependent on strengthening the domestic halal industry. The transformation from a consumer market to a global halal producer is a crucial step that will determine Indonesia's position in the future integration of the global Islamic economy.
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