Located in Indian ocean, Maldives has been known for its tourism industry. Surrounded by beautiful islands, Maldives actually has big potential of zakat. In the response to World Zakat Forum and its upcoming conference and annual meeting, Dr Ahmed Ziyad, the Minister of Islamic Affairs of Maldives, has indicated his willingness to participate in the World Zakat Forum event. This was stated during the meeting with Dr Irfan Syauqi Beik, Puskas BAZNAS Director, who is also WZF Executive Secretary here in Male City on Wednesday (7/18). Irfan coveyed the WZF intention to invite the minister to become one of the keynote speakers and guest of honours of the WZF conference, that will be held in Melaka, Malaysia on 5-7 December this year.
The Minister also agree to strengthen cooperation in the field of zakat in particular and Islamic economic in general. The meeting was also attended by Dr Ahmed Zahir (head of department at Ministry of Islamic Affairs), Jannath Saeed (Head of Zakat Section), Dwatmaji Hanomanresi (Counsellor of Indonesian Embassy in Colombo) and Dr Laily Dwi Arsyianti (Secretary of the Islamic Economic Department at Bogor Agricultural University - IPB). Irfan said, "Maldives participation in the WZF will strengthen the Forum itself, and we hope other countries, especially the OIC countries can follow Maldives step to join the World Zakat Forum." Irfan hoped that current WZF leadership could increase the number of WZF member countries to 30 countries until 2020.
Worldzakatforum.org
