Workshop on Islamic Banking and Finance

A two day seminar and workshop organized by the First Global Group in collaboration with Open Arc Systems Management (Pvt) Ltd and the Galadari Hotel Colombo is to be held in Colombo (later this month) aimed at helping the public understand the concept of Islamic banking and finance.

First Global Group officials told reporters at a recent briefing that they were extremely grateful to scholars and experts coming from Middle East to share their expertise at the workshop.

The Islamic banking and finance industry is growing rapidly particularly in the Middle East and South East Asia and a recent study showed that 30,000 new Islamic banking and finance professionals are needed to bridge the gap in the Gulf region within the next decade.

The workshop aims at imparting to participants the principles of Islamic banking and finance, relevant products and services offerings, how such products and services differ with that of conventional practices.

It will also address issues on instruments of equity investing, credit and charge cards, how to create new markets with Islamic financial products and will demonstrate through a case study how Islamic banks and financial institutions earn their profits and distribute them among their depositors, investors and the shareholders.

Speakers at the workshop include Sheikh Esam Ishaq, a renowned scholar from the Middle East who sits in a number of Shari’ah Supervisory Boards of Islamic banks and financial institutions worldwide, Dr. Mohamed Burhan Arbouna, an expert not only on the subject of Islamic banking and finance, but also a specialist in Takaful (Islamic Insurance) and Muhammad Ikram Thowfeek, a chartered accountant by profession and an Islamic banker in practice, who is currently the Head of Corporate Strategy-ALSAFA Islamic banking, Commercial Bank of Qatar.