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BI urges Islamic finance industry to enhance human capital
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A teller serves a customer at Bank Panin Syariah in Jakarta. The shareholders in the Islamic lender have approved the bank's name change to Bank Panin Dubai Syariah after Dubai Islamic Bank increased its ownership share to 39.5 percent last year. (Kontan/Fransiskus Simbolon)
B
ank Indonesia (BI) has urged Islamic financial institutions to enhance their human capital in order to improve competitiveness and sustain the industry’s rapid growth.
"If we want to see the Islamic financial sector on par with its conventional counterpart, it is relevant to improve the human capital," BI deputy governor Hendar told a seminar on human capital development held at BI’s offices in Jakarta on Friday.
Hendar added that Islamic financial institutions had achieved significant growth, surpassing the growth of conventional financial institutions even during the global economic crisis.
Despite this achievement, the industry was still facing a low quality of human capital, resulting in relatively low operational efficiency and poor product knowledge, he said.
"We should pay more attention to the low quality of human resources. This unfortunate phenomenon has affected many countries, including Indonesia," he said.
To enhance human capital, industry players needed to address crucial factors. Universities needed to provide teaching materials that combined Islamic and regular education with technology-based development and needed to build strong cooperation with global institutions.
Meanwhile, Ali Ghufron Mukti, director general for science, technology and higher education at the Research and Technology and Higher Education Ministry, added that to achieve global competitiveness, industry players needed to improve technological readiness, innovation and higher education.
"In the era of ASEAN Economic Community, human resources, undoubtedly, play an important role to enhance the competitiveness of the country. Hence, the ministry encourages individuals and organizations to conceptualize and make strategies to enhance human capital," he said, adding that vocational education was necessary beside academic education.
He said priority sectors to focus on were energy and renewable energy, health care, transportation, defense and maritime industries. (dmr)
