The National Board of Zakat of the Republic of Indonesia (BAZNAS) and IPB University have been collaborated in conducting the Islamic Economics Winter Course (IEWC) at the Faculty of Economics and Management IPB University from 14-19th October 2019. The event aims to discuss the global issues of Islamic banking and finance from the perspective of economy and shariah law.

The Chairman of BAZNAS, Prof. Dr. Bambang Sudibyo, said that many of the current data depict that the optimistic of the tremendous growth of the Islamic economy notably zakat in the future. Hence, zakat institution needs to provide the best services for zakat stakeholders particularly for the donors (muzaki) and beneficiaries (mustahik).

“By providing excellent services in zakat, the collection of zakat fund surely will grow and it will spread a greater contribution for the economy of ummah” He said.

Mr. Bambang stated that presently the Muslim population is about 22% of the total population in the world. Compare to the other religion, the growth of the Muslim population is the fastest and the biggest growth population in 2050, the Muslim population is predicted to become the largest population.

Furthermore, he also argues that the positive demography trend of the Muslim population will impact directly the growth of Islamic banking and finance as well as the zakat sector. Currently, the total value of the Islamic economy in 2017 gained US$ 1,863 billion. Whilst, the value of the Halal tourism sector reached U$ 177 billion and the value will be predicted an increase to US$ 274 billion as said by Mr. Bambang in his keynote speech entitled The Role of Zakat in the Contemporary Development of Islamic World at IEWC opening session.

Also, Mr. Bambang emphasizes that the Halal food sector also grows positively and it has a good prospective in the future. It can be seen that the sector contributed by about 1,303 billion in 2017 to the economy and in 2023 the value will attach to US$ 1,863 billion.

The Director of Zakat Distribution and Utilization of BAZNAS said that the Islamic economy sector has rapidly grown. The dynamic development of the Islamic economy should be supported by qualified human resources to preserve the quality growth of this sector.

Thus, to fulfill the market necessity of the Islamic economy sector, it is pivotal for the Islamic economy stakeholders to provide relevant training to enhance the capacity of human resources in the side of Islamic economics knowledge.

“Hence, the BAZNAS Center of Strategic Studies (Puskas-BAZNAS) and the Department of Islamic Economics IPB University are collaborated in managing the IEWC” Mr. Irfan adds.

IEWC is the Islamic economics short course that discussing comprehensively the current issues in the Islamic economy. The IEWC also provides an industrial expose for its participants by visiting the Indonesian key industry of Islamic economic such as the Department of Islamic Banking of Financial Service Authority (DPbS-OJK) to investigate how Islamic banking regulator (OJK) manages the Islamic financial institutions in Indonesia. Nevertheless, the participants of IEWC also got a chance to see the zakat management in Indonesia by visiting the BAZNAS headquarters in Jakarta. Besides, the IECW participants are facilitated by the committee to conduct a visitation to the zakat village that supervised by BAZNAS such as Batik Village in Cibuluh and Tegal Waru in Bogor.