24th May 2021, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain | The General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), the global umbrella of Islamic financial institutions, successfully commenced its Annual Meetings 2021. This 2-day event will witness a number of regular working group meetings and other side-events. This year’s CIBAFI Annual Meetings is a special event that marks CIBAFI’s 20th Anniversary as the official representative of Islamic financial institutions globally. CIBAFI was established in 2001 by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group and a number of leading Islamic financial institutions.
Today, CIBAFI Secretariat held three closed meetings within its working groups to discuss the current projects and upcoming activities that are under the mandate of each group’s establishment: 1) 16th CIBAFI Accreditation Board (AcB) Meeting, 2) 9th CIBAFI Members Consultative Group (MCG) Meeting, and 3) 3rd CIBAFI Sustainability Working Group (SWG) Meeting.
One of today’s agenda highlights is the 4th Professional Development and Human Empowerment Strategic Session in Islamic Finance. This online strategic session brought together CIBAFI professional development agents, human resource executives and managers, and other stakeholders. The session showcased the latest training strategies in this current state of the training industry in general and how to improve human capacity within the Islamic finance industry in particular.
The speakers and participants were welcomed by CIBAFI Secretary General, Dr. Abdelilah Belatik. The welcoming was followed by special remarks from Prof. Dr. Mohamad Akram Laldin, Executive Director of International Shari’ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA), Malaysia and a member of CIBAFI Accreditation Board.
The session witnessed an interactive panel discussion among professional development expert speakers: Dr. Lulwa Al Mutlaq, Founding President, Golden Trust Training and Consultancy, Bahrain; Dr. Mohamed Qalib, Deputy General Manager, Salaam Center for Training, Research and Consultancy, Djibouti and Mr. Anas Adel Abdul Fattah, Executive Director, Qmm AlRowad Alalameya For Training, Saudi Arabia and. The session was moderated by Mrs. Zainab Alowainaty, Director of Administration and Finance at CIBAFI.
During the session, the speakers discussed a range of topics from the latest advancements in the training field to the main opportunities and challenges of adopting and developing online training programmes. The speakers have also shared their successful experiences in adopting CIBAFI’s training programmes and shared their views on how CIBAFI could expand its reach in new regions.
This initiative is aligned with CIBAFI’s third strategic objective of Training and Professional Empowerment which endeavors to enhance capacity building in the Islamic financial services industry (IFSI). CIBAFI, as the ‘voice’ of the industry, aims to provide high-level platforms to develop the human capital and bring industry professionals together to encourage dialogue and enhance knowledge sharing on the most relevant matters to the IFSI.
The second day of CIBAFI Annual Meetings will continue tomorrow with 1) CIBAFI - PwC Webinar on “Evolving Global Tax Landscape and Islamic Finance Industry, 2) Online Launch of CIBAFI Global Islamic Bankers’ Survey (GIBS) Report 2021, with the theme, “Islamic Banking Sector: A Look into the Future”, 3) CIBAFI Members Strategic Session on “Evaluating the Current Strategic Plan 2019 – 2022”, 4) CIBAFI “Adoption of Financial Technologies (FinTech) Award 2021 Ceremony, and 5) CIBAFI 21st Annual General Meeting (AGM). Catch up and join CIBAFI Annual Meetings through this link https://www.cibafi-agm-2021.org/.