Indonesia launches Center of Excellence on Islamic Finance to meet SDGs

Indonesia International Islamic University, the United Nations Development Program and Islamic Development Bank announced a partnership to establish the Center of Excellence on Islamic Finance to meet the UN sustainable development goals.

Speaking during the 8^th Indonesia Sharia Economic Festival on Monday, Komaruddin Hidayat, rector of Indonesia International Islamic University (UIII) said that the center would be located at UIII campus in Depok, West Java. It will seek an innovation strategy to harness and expand creative sources of financing for SDG acceleration in Indonesia, he said. The center would also conduct advanced research on scaling up initiatives and exploring new opportunities for Islamic financing to meet SDGs in various fields, Hidayat added.

“Current literature suggests that from a Quranic perspective, SDG values have been initiated fourteen centuries ago,” Hidayat said. “This was well before Elkington introduced the concept of triple bottom line in 1997: profit, people, planet, which has become a primary reference for sustainable business models. Now, it is time for us to apply these values in our Islamic financial industry to improve its green financing, reaching its services to rural areas and expanding its product to accommodate disadvantaged social groups.”