"Australia and Mauritius have said they want to be hubs for Islamic finance," says Rushdi Siddiqui, head of global Islamic financial markets at Thomson Reuters, a news service.
"Sri Lanka already has more than a decade of experience in Islamic finance. Sri Lanka has just approved an Islamic bank.
That means regulators are open-minded.
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Sri Lanka's central bank has just given provisional approval to set up Amana Bank which is promoted by Amana Investments, a group which has been in Islamic finance for more than a decade.
Several Sri Lankan banks also have 'Islamic banking' windows.
"You could be a bridge to Maldives, Mauritius and South India," Siddiqui said on the sidelines of an Islamic finance conference organized by UTO Educonsult, a consultancy.
Siddiqui says Sri Lanka could issue a 'Sukuk' or sovereign bond compliant with Shariah or Muslim religious law which could raise the profile of the island among Gulf countries.
"You could do a parallel rupee and dollar denomin