There is an urgent need for intellectual works to boost Islamic financial products, Dr. Ahmad Mohammad Ali, President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) said here on Saturday. Addressing a forum to attract support of institutions for Executive Islamic Financial Management (XIFM) Program at Effat University here on Saturday, Dr. Ali said it was important to make the students aware of Islamic banking tracks, such as, Islamic financial and development challenges, Islamic banking opportunities and the financial crisis and partnership opportunities between universities and Islamic banking. “Some researchers have estimated the average annual growth of the Islamic finance since the beginning of the new century to about 32 percent with assets worth $700 billion over the end of the year 2007,” said Dr. Ali. The (XIFM) program is in collaboration with Ecole Supérieure des Affaires (ESA) in Beruit, and the Rotterdam School of Management(RSM) at Erasmus University. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is supporting the program in this forum. A number of businessmen, faculty members of the university and IDB representatives attended the forum aimed at making the XIFM program as a headquarter and home for all researchers and students by mixing between the Islamic financial material and traditional finance and to exchange the experiences with the Effat's faculty members and students in Islamic financial field. “There is a lack of qualified managers in the Islamic financial sectors based on Islamic Shariah. The Islamic financial institutions are planning carefully to overcome this and to take advantages of banking opportunities available to our students,” said Dr. Haifa Jamal Al-Laial, Dean of Effat University. Dr. Ali said money cannot alone solve the global crisis. It can be tackled by supporting the intellectual work to redraw the development strategies, and to double the amount of funding and investment within the limits of financial caution. Furthermore, Dr. Iman Mohammad, chief of the extension programs department said that XIFM program will provide nine scholarships for male and female students. Two of them will be given as a complete scholarship covering all costs of the program amounting to SR135,000. Three grants will cover about 50 percent, and other four grants will cover 25 percent.
