Lanai Kijang, September 3-4, 2014 – The International Shari’ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA) has successfully organized ISRA’s International Colloquium of Islamic Finance (IICIF). This year Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) recognized IICIF as one of the main agendas in the Global Islamic Finance Forum (GIFF).

The theme of this 4th IICIF is “The Role of Islamic Finance in Socio-Economic Development: Ideals and Realities”. The presentations and discussions were conducted in English and Arabic.

The main objectives of this colloquium are as follows:

1. To gather brilliant minds from academia and the industry;
2. To provide a platform for discussing excellent ideas and high impact research among Shari’ah scholars, academics, students and practitioners of Islamic finance, especially with respect to creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge;
3. To address the pertinent issues in Islamic finance;
4. To recognise the research undertaken by universities in Malaysia in particular and the rest of the world in general.
5. To create strong relationships among students, academics and industry players with the goal of realizing the full potential of the Islamic finance internationally.

The two-day event was opened by Professor Dr Ashraf Md Hashim, Executive Director of ISRA Consultancy, who delivered the welcoming address. This event attracted 197 delegates comprising scholars, academicians, practitioners in Islamic financial institutions, postgraduate students and representatives of universities from Malaysia, Indonesia and Algeria. In total, 23 papers were presented (excluding ISRA papers).

Academic partners for this year’s event were:

• Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia
• Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Malaysia
• Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UNiSZA), Malaysia
• Sekolah Tinggi Ekonomi Islam Tazkia (TAZKIA), Indonesia
• Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia
• Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia
• University of Ferhat Abbas, Setif, Algeria
• International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), Malaysia
• University of Malaya, Malaysia
• Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Malaysia

The award for best paper (individual category) was given to Mr. Ascarya from Bank Indonesia for “Sustainable Conventional and Islamic Microfinance Models for Micro Enterprises”. UKM was awarded for the best paper (university category). The paper was jointly written by Siti Ngayesah Ab Hamid and Dr Wan Jamaliah Wan Jusoh and is titled “Perceived Image of Zakat Institutions in Malaysia: Assessing the Influence of Reputation, Corporate Communications, Service Accessibility and Contact Personnel”. Congratulations to all the winners, and keep up the good work!

Conference Paper