Benefits to pandemic-stricken global communities under new Monash Business School collaboration

1 September 2021

L-R INCEIF President and CEO Prof Dato’ Dr Azmi Omar and Head of Monash Business School Prof Simon Wilkie and Pandemic Research Group Head, Prof Paresh Kumar Narayan.

Global communities suffering complex social and financial problems caused by the pandemic will benefit from a new research collaboration between Monash Business School and the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), under which insights of Islamic finance will be integrated into conventional methods.

Monash Business School and INCEIF in Malaysia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalising a new collaboration aiming to bring the Islamic finance perspective to key global pandemic issues.

The main objective of the new partnership between INCEIF and Monash Business School’s Pandemic Research Group will be to help global communities stricken by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Head of Monash Business School Professor Simon Wilkie said the partnership was an important step in fostering enduring and fruitful research relationships in the area of Islamic finance.

“The world as we know has changed irrevocably. It is vital that we tackle the economic and social challenges wrought by the pandemic and that all voices are heard,” he said.

Speaking at the virtual signing ceremony, Professor Dato’ Dr Azmi Omar, President and Chief Executive Officer of INCEIF, said effective solutions to economic harms wrought by the pandemic depended on high-quality applied research that aligned with top priority societal goals, yielded from trustworthy data and coupled with actionable information.

“Trustworthy and societal goals are the basic tenets of Islamic economy and finance that insist on inclusive, fair and equitable practices, offering a system based on commercial and social modes of risk-sharing and financing with structural solutions to the health, human and financial crises faced in this unprecedented time,” he said.

The Pandemic Research Group provides policy advice and global research to help countries recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Head of the Pandemic Research Group, Professor Paresh Kumar Narayan said it will contribute to research that helps communities build resilience to the vagaries of the pandemic and allow businesses to minimise disruption.

“The Monash Business School and INCEIF partnership is one such collaboration that the Pandemic Research Group treasures because it allows both institutions to explore the pivotal role of Islamic finance in socio-economic recovery due to the pandemic,” he said.

“The collaboration will ensure that the role of Islamic finance is maximised in all methods of recovery.”