Towards A Unified Zakat System

proportion of them (46 percent) invested in company shares.A reasonable proportion of the respondents indicated thatthey had invested in the banking sector. Only 11 percent ofthe participants indicated that they invested in Islamicbanks. Investment in government bonds registered the lowestpopularity with only 4 percent of the respondents indicatingthat they had investments in bonds. It is important tomention, however, that only Saudi Arabia, from among the GCCcountries, issues government bonds; having been recentlyintroduced by the Saudi government. Hence, it will take timefor the Saudi investors to gain their benefits. A majorproportion of the participants (59 percent) indicated thatthey have invested more than US$15,000. Eighteen percent ofthe respondents revealed that they had invested less thanUS$5,000. A high percentage of the respondents (48 percent)claimed that they had been holding their investments forbetween 1-5 years. Twenty-one percent of them said that theyhad been holding their investments for more than 10 years.The results indicate that Gulf investors prefer to hold onto their investments. Given that the majority of theparticipants claimed they invest in shares, this wouldrestrict share circulation. This result is in line withNaser's (1998) findings; that share investors in the Gulfregion tend to buy shares and keep them for a long time.207