His Excellency Abdulla
Hasan Saif, Minister of
Finance and National Economy, Kingdom of Bahrain, Her Excellency Dr. Maryam bint Hasan Ale Khalifa, President University of Bahrain, His
Excellency Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa,
Governor, Bahrain Monetary Agency; His Excellency Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Ali,
President Islamic Development Bank; His Excellency Sheikh Saleh
Abdullah Kamel,
Ladies and
Gentlemen
As
the current President of the International Association For Islamic Economics it
is my pleasant duty to propose a vote of thanks to His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, the Prime minister of Bahrain for
extending his patronage and hosting this Fifth International Conference on
Islamic Economics and Finance, to H.E. Abdulla Hasan Saif, Minister of Finance and National Economy who
in 2000 on the occasion of the Fourth International Conference on Islamic
Economics and Banking invited our Association to plan this Conference to be
held in Bahrain and the University of Bahrain and the Islamic Development Bank
who made strenuous efforts for making this Conference such a success as we see
it today. I would also like to thank all members of Conference Committees who
worked very hard. Without their dedicated efforts, we could not see such
magnificent arrangements and such a rich collection of papers. I will fail in
my duty if I do not put on record my deep appreciation for paper writers and
discussants for their valuable contributions. It is that treasure which will
keep the memories of this Conference alive for future generations.
Ladies and
Gentlemen:
A
quarter century ago there was no Islamic bank in
Distinguished Guests
It
is no secret that behind the flowering of Islamic banking and finance and the
sprouting of the nascent discipline of Islamic economics in university campuses
the world over, are the untiring efforts of Islamic economists during the last
half century. From its modest beginnings in the Indian subcontinent and
During
the 20 years that have elapsed since then great strides have been made. New
ideas have been germinated, new financial instruments developed, new
institutions established. The Association and its leading members silently
provided a helping hand. Since 1991, the Association is publishing an academic
journal, “Review of Islamic Economics”. More importantly, it is closely
associated with the remaining half a dozen scholarly journals in the field.
During the same period, the number of seminars and conferences on Islamic
Economics and Finance runs into hundreds. Not all were organized by the
Association. But the office holders of
the Association were always there with their support and guidance. Under its
own auspices, the Association has organized the series of International
Conferences of which this one in
We
are fortunate indeed that today our hosts in the
Ladies
and Gentlemen
We
have the ambition of penetrating further into the academia. One effective way
of doing that is by instituting endowed chairs at some major seats of learning
for teaching and research in Islamic Economics/Islamic Finance. Also
scholarships to attract talented students in this field can be very effective.
We have wide contacts and some experience in this regard. All that we need for
making a break through are financial resources. There is also a plan for donating
or subsidizing the purchase of Islamic economic literature to Universities
which can go along the above two steps.
The
Association aspires, through in-house research, round tables and appropriate publications to influence
the future direction of the Islamic financial industry so that it becomes
poor-friendly and pays special attention to the poorest among Muslim countries
and communities. This may need designing credit instruments and investment
vehicles suited to the poor---a task that should not be left to the market
forces as it would need some institutional support in the initial stages. The
association has the network needed for
launching such a project, but it needs money.
Last but not the least, the Association has
always been a forum where East meets West in a noble joint venture to develop
economics using the best in human knowledge guided by Divine principles. The
Association has the wherewithal of acting as
link between Muslim academia, and the Economics profession, as also
between the financial community in general and the Shariah scholars and jurists. This would entail
creating special task forces and discussion groups as also sending suitable
representatives to professional conferences and other events. Given the nature
of our enterprise involving religion as well as business and the East as well
as the West, strengthening such links can be neglected only at a great peril to
the whole exercise.
Once
again, your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen! Thanks for your attention, thanks for coming.
Mohammad Nejatullah Siddiqi
President
International
Association For
Islamic
Economics