The Central Leadership Council of the Islamic Economists Association (DPP IAEI) in collaboration with the Commissariat of Jenderal Soedirman University (Unsoed) held its first activity after the inauguration in the form of a National Seminar on Islamic Economics (SENSEI) with the theme "Digitalisation of Islamic Finance: Opportunities and Challenges" on Thursday (19/5), virtually through the Zoom Meeting platform.
The webinar was opened by Astera Primanto Bhakti, M.Tax as Secretary General of IAEI. The Secretary General of IAEI in his keynote speech emphasised that access to digital finance such as Islamic finance and banking is still limited, especially for MSMEs and "this is homework for all of us" he added. Furthermore, Astera hopes that "This webinar activity is expected to be able to provide enlightenment and ideas related to financial digitalisation so that the syiar of Islamic economics will be better."
The Secretary General of IAEI also said that the world's major companies currently almost all have businesses in the field of technology, where in fact the technology business can increase the valuation of the company. Indonesia itself is known as a very active internet user, especially based on existing data, during the pandemic internet users in Indonesia increased significantly. Based on this data, it means that public acceptance regarding technological developments is very large, this can be used to accelerate the utilisation of Indonesia's welfare.
The Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business who is also the Chairperson of the IAEI Unsoed Commissariat, Prof. Wiwiek Rabiatul Adawiyah, Ph.D in his remarks revealed that the Webinar which took place on Thursday, 19 May 2022 through the zoom platform is "A means for IAEI to play a role in socialisation and Islamic financial literacy, especially in micro-scale programmes". Furthermore, the Dean of FEB Unsoed hopes that this webinar will provide insight and added value for all of us to better understand the concept of Islamic economics in order to encourage the progress of Islamic economics and finance in Indonesia.
In addition, remarks from the Chairman of DPW IAEI Central Java Prof. Dr. Wisnu Untoro, M.Si. on this occasion expressed that the obligations of academics and IAEI members are not only at the level of discussion of challenges in the digitalisation of Islamic finance. Furthermore, he hopes that in the future IAEI activities can be in the form of conducting research related to Islamic finance which can be carried out both across the IAEI commissariat and through cross-disciplines.
The webinar, which was attended by more than 350 participants from various backgrounds, both from academics and Islamic finance practitioners, focused on three discussion topics, namely "Hajj Fund Management in the Era of Financial Digitalisation" delivered by the Head of the Hajj Financial Management Agency, Mr Anggito Abimanyu. The second topic was "Digitalisation of Sharia Finance and the Role of Sharia Financial Institutions" delivered by Mr John Kosasih as Director of BCA Bank and the third topic was "Sharia Financial Literacy and Planning in the Digital Era" delivered by an academic from FEB Unsoed, Mr Dian Purnomo Jati.
