.jpg)
ShareKUALA LUMPUR: Kuwait’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Rashid Al-Saleh, affirmed on Tuesday Kuwait’s keenness to support developmental endowment initiatives, noting the importance of employing technology to serve communities and investing in digital assets to enhance innovation in the field of Islamic endowment. This statement was made by Al-Saleh during the symposium ‘Digital Endowments: Their Legitimacy, Applications, and Impact on Sustainable Development,’ sponsored by the General Secretariat of Kuwait Endowments and hosted by the International Islamic University in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
”Based on Kuwait’s pioneering role in supporting developmental and endowment initiatives and its belief in the importance of using technology to serve communities, we see digital assets as an unprecedented opportunity to enhance innovation in the field of endowment in light of the rapid digital transformations witnessed by the world,” he said. He emphasized the importance of expanding the horizons of endowment work to include digital assets and motivating individuals and institutions to convert part of their digital properties into sustainable endowments that transcend geographical borders and benefit broad segments of societies around the world.
He pointed out that this initiative aligns with Kuwait’s vision to support sustainable development, highlighting its role in promoting endowments as an effective tool for achieving social solidarity and contributing to creating a more sustainable future and digital justice for all. Al-Saleh praised the efforts made by the General Secretariat of Endowments and the fruitful cooperation with the International Islamic Charitable Organization of Kuwait for initiatives that serve endowment work.
For her part, the general coordinator of the symposium and supervisor of the Department of Studies and External Relations at the General Secretariat of Endowments of Kuwait, Reham Bokhowa, informed KUNA that the decision to choose Malaysia as the host for the symposium stemmed from its pioneering experiences in the field of endowments, whether cash or in-kind, along with its leadership in endowing sukuk and its advanced expertise in financial technology. Bokhowa explained that the International Islamic University of Malaysia hosts an elite group of specialized scholars who have extensive experience in the fields of endowments and technology.
She noted that the General Secretariat of Endowments had previously cooperated with the university in organizing and sponsoring earlier scientific symposia. She expressed hope that this symposium would provide a fruitful platform for exchanging knowledge and experiences while enhancing cooperation to build a sustainable endowment future. Additionally, she expressed her aspiration that the symposium would yield practical, applicable outcomes and recommendations. For his part, Deputy Director General for Projects at the Kuwait International Islamic Charitable Organization, Abdulrahman Al-Mutawa, stated similarly to KUNA that the organization pays great attention to the endowment sector, highlighting that its inception stemmed from the idea of endowment, making it an essential part of its development strategies.
Al-Mutawa explained that the idea of holding this symposium originated from the International Forum for Development Organizations based in Turkey, where the International Islamic Charitable Organization embraced, studied, and developed the idea before submitting it to the General Secretariat of Endowments, which undertook to sponsor and organize it. He expressed his aspiration that the symposium would yield practical recommendations that would enable charitable societies to develop their endowments and transform them into advanced digital models in line with artificial intelligence and the technological revolution.
He stressed the importance of innovation in digital endowment as an effective tool for serving human communities and enhancing the sustainability of development projects. In his opening speech for the symposium, the President of the International Islamic University Malaysia, Dr Osman Bakar, stated that it “reflects the established Islamic values and the importance of integration between academic activities and endowment practices.”
In this context, Bakar praised the efforts of the State of Kuwait, represented by the General Secretariat of Endowments and the International Islamic Charitable Organization, in organizing and sponsoring this symposium, based on the spirit of unity and solidarity to serve society. He explained that digital endowment represents a modern trend in the field of endowments, as it provides innovative opportunities to contribute to charitable work and achieve social and humanitarian goals, stressing that this endowment model can extend its impact to include various parts of the world, especially in countries facing conflicts and humanitarian crises such as Palestine, Syria and Sudan.
He emphasized the importance of integration and harmony in the digital strategy to ensure the establishment of a sustainable digital endowment based on the principles of economic and social justice. He stated that digital endowment can be harnessed to serve a wide range of objectives, such as providing education, supporting healthcare, promoting community development, and economically empowering individuals, in addition to contributing to increased agricultural, industrial, and technical production, along with many other areas that enhance societies’ ability to develop and improve the quality of life for individuals.
For his part, the CEO of Waqf Malaysia, Dr. Ridwan Bakar, reviewed the Malaysian experience in the field of endowment in his opening speech, pointing out the prominent role of non-governmental organizations in supporting and developing endowment projects. Bakar stated that digital endowment is a new concept that opens up broad horizons for contributing to charitable work and enhances the achievement of social and humanitarian goals through innovative tools that keep pace with technological developments.
He addressed the challenges and risks associated with digital endowment, explaining that the most prominent of these are operating costs, information security, competitive awareness, and the variation in the market value of digital assets, noting that meeting these challenges requires relying on digital assets with high technical specifications, in addition to providing efficient management capable of effective operation, enhancing competitiveness, and ensuring that endowment services reach beneficiaries in the best possible way.
In his speech, Secretary General of the International Forum for Development Organizations Mamoun Al-Ashqar stressed the pivotal role of charitable and humanitarian work undertaken by Kuwait, both domestically and internationally, praising its pioneering role in supporting endowment and development initiatives. Al-Ashqar pointed out that choosing Malaysia to host the symposium reflects its position in employing technology to serve Islamic work, and that this event enhances the concept of partnership and cooperation between the organizing bodies, which contributes to developing frameworks for joint work in the field of endowments.
He explained that the continuous development of endowment tools and the need to adapt to technological changes require the development of a clear roadmap for digital endowment, stressing that this symposium constitutes a first step towards organizing more sustainable and efficient digital endowment work. He noted that a specialized conference on digital endowment is planned based on the results and recommendations of this symposium , with the aim of establishing solid foundations for this field and enhancing its role in sustainable development.
The symposium agenda includes six main axes, including the legal basis for digital endowments to discuss the jurisprudential foundations of the concept of digital endowments, as well as the legal form of digital endowments to review the legal and legislative frameworks regulating this field. The axes also include governance of digital endowments to explore mechanisms for effective oversight and management of digital endowment assets, as well as technical specifications for digital endowments to discuss the technical standards required to ensure the sustainability of these endowments.
It also includes practical applications for digital endowments to showcase successful models and experiences in the Islamic world, in addition to ideas and projects for digital endowments to anticipate the future of digital endowments and ways to develop them. The General Secretariat of Kuwaiti Endowments is sponsoring the two-day symposium, and the International Islamic Charitable Organization of Kuwait, the International Islamic University of Malaysia, the International Forum for Development Organizations, and the Insan Foundation for Relief and Development are participating in the organization. - KUNA
