[PHOTO: Banker Norleza Abu Bakar (fourth from left) with four lawyers, (from left) Roziana Yusof, Wan Helmi Wan Hasan, Mohd Farid Azahari and Rafidah Ash'ari, are part of the batch that recently graduated from IIiBF]
By Habhajan Singh
Two local institutions specialising in Islamic finance saw their students graduating this month.
IIUM Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance (IIiBF), the wing under the International Islamic University of Malaysia, presented the latest batch of graduates their scrolls on Oct 4. On Saturday, International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) celebrated a milestone with its second convocation ceremony.
IIiBF, officially established in January 2005, now offers a Postgraduate Diploma in Islamic Banking and Finance, Master of Science in Islamic Banking and Finance and PhD in Islamic Banking and Finance. Additionally, it also provides certificate programmes in Singapore and Sri Lanka.
"There are plans under way to offer similar certificate programmes in Bahrain, China, India, Maldives and Kazakhstan," said IIUM rector Prof Datuk Seri Dr Syed Arabi Idid. He said the institute has signed more than 15 MoUs and collaborations in areas of training, product development and consultancy with various private and governmental institutions nationally and internationally such as Brunei, Iran, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Nigeria, Indonesia and Singapore.
"As part of IIiBF internationalization programme, our staff is involved in providing technical expertise to the Krygzstan and Afghanistan governments to develop Islamic financial system as a second pillar to support economic development there," he said.
INCEIF is also working on global collabaration in its quest to become a truly global university in Islamic finance going forward. Its resident and chief executive officer, Agil Natt, said the university would be collaborating with the University of Luxembourg, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Reims Management School in France next year in Islamic finance education.
"These are countries that have Muslim minorities. The fact that they are associating with us for Islamic finance education is indeed a good sign," he said in his speech at the recent convocation, reports Bernama.
The report added that INCEIF has already started its Chartered Islamic Finance Performance Professional (CIFP) programme in Bahrain in collaboration with the University of Bahrain, adding that the university is also currently working on accreditation in Iran and Yemen.
INCEIF was set up in March 2006 by Bank Negara Malaysia which provided an endowment fund to develop and enhance human capital in Islamic finance, to meet the needs of Islamic industry.
(This story appeared in The Malaysian Reserve on 25 October 2010. The Malaysian Reserve is a daily business/finance newspaper published out of Kuala Lumpur, with a sectoral page on Islamic finance on Mondays, edited by Habhajan Singh)
1 comment:
Malaysia's Islamic financial sector is considered one of the most progressive and attractive in the world where the release of numerous incentives planned and in the years to come. Malaysia has a comprehensive regulatory framework and control which covers the unique characteristics of Islamic finance.
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