Benchmark Visit from Philippines

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) welcomes two Board of Director members of the Philippine Association of Islamic Accountants (PAIA), Brother Amanoding ESMAIL,  CPA and Sister Soraida ESMAIL, CPA who took time off to visit ARI today.  A collaborative meeting was held between the duo and ARI fellows to discuss: (i) involvement of ARI in the activities of the International Council of Islamic Finance Educators - ICIFE, (ii) ARI's collaboration in co-organising an International Conference on Islamic Finance Profession and Professionals, to be held in Manila in July 2016,  (iii) the establishment of Mindanao Halal Corporation, and (iv) training programs on Islamic Finance for members of the PAIA.

In 2013, the Accounting Research Institute, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and the Philippine Association of Islamic Accountants signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to signify interest and efforts to collaborate, specifically in the area of Islamic Finance research.  One of the first collaborative projects organised by both entities was the organisation of an International Conference on Islamic Finance in 2014 in Cagayan, Mindanao.

Mazda Seven Guiding Principles

In an interview with the Star Newspaper, Mazda Motor Corp representative director, president and chief executive Takashi Yamanouchi spoke of the "seven guiding principles", a management philisophy that is being practiced successfully by the company to maintain its competitive edge.  Basically, the principles are built on the belief that investing in people is important to build a company that employs people who enjoy their work.  Premised on this belief, the seven guiding principles are namely: integrity, basic & flawless execution, continuous improvement (kaizen), challenger spirit, self initiative, tomoiku or mutual learning and 1Mazda.  The concept of 1Mazda aims to instill into employees of Mazda to be sincere, faithful to the basics, to have a challenging spirit, to mutually develop others and oneself.

Note: Some captions of this entry have been extracted from the Star Online Newspaper 5th August 2012 - Business section

ITU-UUM Visit to ARI

The Accounting Research Institute is greatly honoured to receive guests and researchers from  ITU-UUM, a research institute from Universiti Utara Malaysia.  Indeed, ITU-UUM aspires to become a HICoE and the visit was mainly meant to obtain "first-hand" information from ARI; to learn and understand ARI's own evolution from an individual-driven SIG to a HICoE and to visit ARI's facilities.  Whilst at ARI, the group was  given a brief presentation related to ARI's own Journey as a Higher Institution's Centre of Excellence. Then, the researchers were taken to visit the Forensic Science laboratory.  There, the researchers explore the use of various equipment  to validate the authenticity of documents or to detect finger prints as documentory evidence

FATF 40 New Recommendations

One of the organizations that have been set up to undertake functions for the development and promotion of national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing is the Financial Action Task Force.  Effective February 2012, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has introduced the "New 40 Recommendations" (incorporating FATF's earlier 40 Recommendations and 9 Special Recommendations) that member countries must comply with.  In essence, the five key changes have included the following:
(i)  The inclusion of tax crimes as predicate offences for money laundering; (ii) The extension of obligations on financial institutions (FIs) to conduct enhanced due deligence on a risk basis to politically exposed persons (PEPs); (iii) The introduction of more rigorous requirements in relation to the information which must accompany wire transfers; (iv) The requirement for countries to establish mechanisms to record basic company information and to enable FIs, competent authorities and others to determine beneficial ownership and conduct appropriate Customer Due Deligence (CDD) and (v) The introduction of a new step-by-step process for the identification of beneficial ownership and control of companies as part of CDD measures. - source FATF

Up and Close with Prof Ferid Murad

This has been a very interesting week for Universiti Teknologi MARA as we receive the presence of one notable Nobel Laurette Prize Winner as our guest. The visit is part of the university's initiative under the Vice Chancellor Special Project (VCSP). Professor Ferid Murad, is an Albanian-American physician and phamacologist, a co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or medicine for the discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. According to his available biography, ... Prof Murad's key work was in showing that nitroglycerin and related drugs worked by releasing nitric oxide into the body, with the gas somehow acting as a signaling molecule, making blood vessels dilate. The biography asserts further that the missing steps in the signaling process were filled in by Furchgott and Ignarro, for which the three shared the 1998 Nobel Prize. The past one week has been filled with various activities which included among others a public lecture of "Sharing the Noble Laurette Journey" with university community and the public; meeting various scientific fraternities; television and other media appearance; Intellectual discourse with the medical research community and post graduate students. Today, Prof Murad has been awarded with the Asia Pacific Brand Laurette at a special function organized by the Faculty of Medicine, Selayang Campus. Two researchers from the Accounting Research Institute (ARI)- Prof Dr Normah and Associate Prof Dr Roshayani - have been invited to the meeting. The opportunity to meet up and close with Professor Ferid Murad has been a memorable event for all of us. When asked "how he did it?", one "take home" message from Prof Murad is the need to have a team who can share and effectively work on the project. For him, his teams are his research fellows and co-researchers....