The 14th annual AAOIFI – World Bank Conference organized under the auspices of the Central Bank of Bahrain concluded successfully. The two-day event organized at the Gulf Hotel in the Kingdom of Bahrain was attended by more than 800 people from not less than 30 countries.

The conference organized in cooperation with the World Bank was supported by multilateral institutions like the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB), central banks, other commercial banks and financial institutions.

The opening ceremony of the conference was attended by the guest of honours H.E. Dr. Bandar Hajjar, President – IsDB, H.E. Shaikh Khaled Bin Ali Bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Minister of Justice, Islamic affairs and Awqaf, Kingdom of Bahrain, H.E. Shaikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, President, National Audit Office, Kingdom of Bahrain, H.E. Shaikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Minister of Oil, Kingdom of Bahrain, H.E. Mr. Aymen bin Tawfeeq Al Moayed, Minister of Youth and Sport, Kingdom of Bahrain, H.E. Mr. Mohammed Abdullah Al Kuwaiz, Chairman of Capital Markets Authority, Saudi Arabia, H.E Mr. Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor, Central Bank of Bahrain and the Chairman of  AAOIFI Board of Trustees H.E. Shaikh Ebrahim Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa together with many other dignitaries and guests from around the world.

On this occasion, H.E. Shaikh Ebrahim Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the Chairman of AAOIFI Board of Trustees stated that “we are pleased to receive the support from government officials, regulatory bodies, banks and financial institutions who graced the occasion with their presence. We are also thankful to the Central Bank of Bahrain for hosting such an important and dynamic conference in the Kingdom once again. I would also like to thank the President of IsDB, for confirming their support to this conference starting this year and accepting our invitation for rebranding this conference to include IsDB’s name to it.”

The two-day event was attended by more than 25 speakers, who presented various research papers and deliberated on the revolutionary changes in the global eco-system and key trends in the global Islamic banking and finance industry.

In addition, several MOUs were signed between AAOIFI and other infrastructure bodies, banks and financial institutions. These include MOUs between AAOIFI and Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre – UAE; AAOIFI and International Islamic Centre for Reconciliation and Arbitration – UAE and between AAOIFI and Jumhouria Bank. The aim of these MOUs is to collaborate in enhancing awareness of AAOIFI accounting standards, capacity building programs and organising joint events and workshops.

Two other MOUs were signed to translate the AAOIFI’s capacity building program – Certified Islamic Professional Accountant (CIPA) into Russian and French languages. Mr. Omar Mustafa Ansari, the Secretary General of AAOIFI stated that “AAOIFI is pleased to sign MOUs with such esteemed organizations; through these partnerships AAOIFI aims to enhance outreach to different markets and jurisdictions.”

A separate special event was also organized on Food Security and Islamic Finance: Connecting Russia with Muslim countries in conjunction with HSE-Skolkovo Institute of Law and Development, Russia. The keynote speech at this event was delivered by H.E. Shaikh Mufti Taqi Usmani, Chairman of AAOIFI Shari’ah Board and was attended by leading Shari’ah scholars in Islamic finance, agricultural and trade experts from Russia in addition to the attendance from government and private institutions from the GCC region and Russia.