QF’s HBKU takes part in 12th ICIEF attended by Turkish president

PRESIDENT of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) Dr Ahmad M Hasnah participated in the 12th International Conference on Islamic Economics and Finance (ICIEF) hosted online by the Halkali Campus of Turkey’s Istanbul Sabahattin aim University recently.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered the opening address of the conference, which contributed to a better understanding and interpretation of Islamic finance in the context of the theme ‘Sustainable Development for the Real Economy’.

Speaking during the opening panel, Dr Hasnah said: “In 2020, the world economy witnessed unprecedented circumstances due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which has affected all countries across the globe. The pandemic was accompanied by multiple crises, which demonstrated that the current way of managing the global economy still lacks many ethical, social, and economic values, especially in times of crisis management.

“In light of these situations, it has become increasingly important to employ the principles of Islamic finance and utilise its institutions to formulate policies and manage the economy and businesses. This requires close cooperation between educational and governmental institutions and the private sector to launch forward-thinking and longterm economic strategies and create diversified, secure, and reliable development plans.

“Ultimately, these plans will support the future growth of the global economy in a sustainable and equitable way. The strategies will also provide economic alternatives based on moral values in the Islamic world, which strike a balance between the individual and state capitalism embraced by the western and socialist systems.” The conference saw the participation of a number of key figures in the world of Islamic economics and finance, including Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak and Pakistan’s Economy Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

Topics discussed during the conference included Islamic money and capital markets in Turkey, entrepreneurship, global financial architecture, the digital economy, the non-profit sector, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and sustainable development. More than 130 policy-makers, academics and researchers from over 30 countries presented their papers via videoconferencing, which attracted at least 5,000 online participants from across the globe.

A number of HBKU faculty participated and presented papers at this conference. The College of Islamic Studies hosted the eighth and tenth editions of this event and fully supported the ninth conference, which was also held at Istanbul Sabahattin aim University.