THE 8th EDITION OF GWC 2020

The 8^th edition of the Global Waqf Conference (GWC2020) recently concluded on the 8^th of December 2020. With the theme “Practicing Waqf at every facet of life”, the conference was held virtually for the first time via webinar considering the Covid-19 pandemic.

Organized by Finterra, UniRazak, International Islamic University (IIUM) and Al Medina International University (MEDIU), the conference also received support from I-FIKR as its knowledge partner, Multimedia University (MMU), Emerald Publishing as its publication partner and from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Saudia Arabia.

The aim of the conference is to serve as a platform to explore the boundaries of new waqf development, new initiatives, the huge potential it offers in alleviating poverty, while shedding light on new innovations, improvements in governance and management which are currently disrupting the Islamic and social finance arena both in Malaysia and globally.

This years’ conference drew a total of 818 registered delegates from 20 countries, a new record for the conference and despite the vast time differences involved. A total of five keynotes were delivered including that from Finterra’s Founder, Mr Hamid Rashid, who spoke about “Waqf linked sustainable investment opportunities”, focusing on Finterra Global Plantations’ Paulownia project in Malaysia.

Other notable keynote addresses came from Dato’ Sri Syed Hussien Al-Habshee, the Chairman of Majlis Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan (MAIWP) who spoke on “Waqf – An Insight, Re-Visit and Moving Forward”. The Chief Executive Officer of Yayasan Wakaf Malaysia, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Amir Bin Shaharuddin, also spoke on “Unlocking Potentials of Waqf In Malaysia”, while Mr. Mohamed Abida, the Acting Head of Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Kuala Lumpur delivered a keynote on “IsDB Centre Of Excellence in Kuala Lumpur and Awqaf Promotion In Malaysia”.

The conference also featured the presentation of seven separate Academic Research Papers by an exceptionally talented line up of Speakers from leading institutions in Malaysia and one by SOZECOM, Nigeria. Previous editions of the conference have all taken place physically with the inaugural being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2013, Istanbul in 2014, Moscow in 2015, Swansea, Wales in 2016, Pekanbaru, Indonesia in 2017, Bangkok, Thailand in November 2018 and the seventh in Kuala Lumpur last year in November. All videos from the sessions are available on Waqf.tv.