Indonesia Visit - Day 2

Whislt most of us were in Jogjakarta, two of our researchers - Associate Professor Dr Nawal & Dr Amrizah had gone to Samarang to meet up with their research collaborators. Since both Dr Nawal and Dr Amrizah are involved in researches related to Islamic finance and shariah audit, they made use of their visit to interview shariah scholars in Indonesia. From our observations and readings, Indonesia is fairly advanced in Shariah-related practices. In fact, Universitas Islam Indonesia itself is a private university which has been successfully established through the wakaf management system. Our second day in Indonesia is equally busy. In the morning, we met up with researchers and two vice deans of the business faculty of Gadjamada University (UGM). At least four research projects related to Islamic Financial Criminology have been identified for possible collaboration between UGM and the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) from Universiti Teknologi MARA. Premised on this preliminary research collaboration, the two universities could hopefully sign a memorandum of understanding in 2012. After our UGM visit, we proceeded to UII to meet another group of our research collaborators. Professor Dr Normah Omar, ARI Director gave a short overview on the establishment of ARI.
As a higher institution centre of excellence (HICoE), ARI plays an important role in promoting research in Islamic finance & muamalat and financial criminology. As such, research collaborations with its Indonesian counterparts would constitute ARI's initiative towards regionalization. In November 2011, ARI and UII will be hosting a joint international conference in Islamic Accounting & MUamalat.