ASEAN educators, experts to discuss blockchain tech for Sukuk financing

NEW WORLD HOTEL, Makati City — All roads will lead here tomorrow, November 14, for the 6th ASEAN Universities International Conference on Islamic Finance (AICIF).

ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations grouping Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The two-day event will feature five Plenary Sessions (with Parallel Sessions), such as:

• I. Sukuk Financing: A Viable Strategy to Finance Sustainable Development,
• II. Financial Innovation in Application to Islamic Finance,
• III. Potentials of Islamic Finance,
• IV. Comparative Regulatory Framework among Southeast Asian Nations, and
• V. Challenges of Shari’ah Compliance, Disclosure and Regulating Form.

Keynote Speakers Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno (right) and Malaysia Minister of Education Yang Berhomat Dr. Mazslee Bin Malik. Photo: AICIF via Nash Sharief)

Speakers will discuss and go into the intricacies of blockchain technology in the Plenary Session II and explore how it can be a catalyst for sourcing out Sukuk (Islamic bonds) to fund the planned rehabilitation and reconstruction of Marawi City in Lanao del Sur, almost totally destroyed in the five-month Marawi siege that started on May 23, 2017.

Speaker on opening day is Department of the Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, who will represent and read President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s Keynote Speech to the event.

For the second and final day, it will be the turn of Malaysia’s Minister of Education Yang Berhomat Dr. Mazslee Bin Malik who will give the Keynote Speech.

Key speakers include Dr. Hamid A. Barra, president, National Ulama Conference of the Philippines; Prof. Dr. Rusni Hassan, leturer, International Islamic University of Malaysia, and assistant secretary at the International Council for Islamic Finance Educators (ICIFE) based in Malaysia; Prof. Dr. Nor Hayati Ahmad, lecturer, Islamic Business School, Universiti Utara Malaysia, and vice president, ICIFE;

Speakers at the event are Prof. Dr. Rusni Hassan (left, top), Prof. Dr. Nor Hayati Ahmad (right, top), and Dr. Hamid Barra. (Photo: AICIP via Nash Sharief)

Atty. Arifah Alauya-Ala, CPA, managing director, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP); Yusry Yusoff, CEO, Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFM); and Dr. Mohammad Nurdin Ngadimon, Shari’ah Development and Islamic Markets, Securities Commission (SC), Malaysia; and others.

Panelists for the Plenary Sessions include Dr. Alex Bangcola, chairman and CEO, Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines, on Sukuk Financing: A viable strategy to finance sustainable development; Atty. Maisara C. Dandamun-Latiph, commissioner, Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTA), on Potential of Islamic Finance

Also speakers at the conference, Dr. Arifah Alauya-Ala (right) and Dr. Md. Nordin Ngadimon. (Photo: AICIF via Nash Sharief)

The seven universities which are members of ICIFE are MSU; International Islamic University, Malaysia (IIUM); Tazkia University, Indonesia; Universitas Darussalam Gontor, Indonesia; Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga, Indonesia; Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University, Brunei Darussalam; and Universitas Islam Sultan Agung, Indonesia.

Participants for the conference include academicians; practitioners; researchers and regulators; international business leaders who offer Islamic financial products; policy-makers; political leaders; senior government officials from countries that have adopted Islamic finance; technology company C-level executives; business development managers; innovators in the financial technology (fintech) sector; ethical finance leaders; business specialists and managers; mid-level management executives; business development manages, analysts; risk professionals in Islamic finance sector; Shari’ah scholars; advisors; lawyers and other legal experts.

Annual conference

AICIF is being held every year, with the host rotating among member universities of ICIFE, based in Malaysia.

The host for 2018 falls on MSU and partners with ICIFE, SAICCI (Southeast Asian Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry,) and PAIA (Philippines Association of Islamic Accountants) in staging the conference, said Nasser S. Sharief, secretary general, SAICCI.

Sharief said further:

“In the wake of the Marawi siege which drew considerable exposure in the world media, the timing could not have come at a better time as the main campus of the university is situated adjacent to Ground Zero.

“The opportunity to tap into the resources of Islamic finance and harness its social functions will then demonstrate the soundness of its principles and schemes in the area of rehabilitation and rebuilding the lives of internally displaced persons (IDPs) after the  catastrophe.” (EKU)