The Waqf Fund, a Bahrain-based special fund to support Islamic finance training, education and research, reviewed its ongoing programmes at a key meeting.

At its 16th board of trustees meeting, the fund expressed its satisfaction that training was being delivered to Islamic banking professionals and Sharia resources at Islamic banks under the Graduate Sponsorship Programme, Sharia Reviewer Development Programme and Advanced Diploma in Islamic Commercial Jurisprudence Programme.

The board decided to strengthen the Islamic finance resources at a major library in Bahrain in order to make it convenient for students and researchers in Islamic finance to conduct their research, making use of contemporary books, magazines, online databases and other digital resources.

"We want to facilitate research in Islamic finance by professionals and academics as it is very important for the long-term success of the industry," Waqf Fund chairman and Central Bank of Bahrain executive director, banking supervision Khalid Hamad said.

"For this purpose we aim to provide support to a public library where anybody can access relevant material and databases both offline and online," he added.

The board also decided to hold a workshop on corporate governance for the chairmen, chief executives and board members of its member institutions.

The main theme of the workshop will be the responsibilities of board members. "We are really interested in improving the standards of corporate governance in Bahrain," Mr Hamad said.

"As the new code of corporate governance gets implemented, the Waqf Fund wants to support the board members of its member institutions in their endeavour to understand their responsibilities and adapt world leading practices to their environment," he added.

The Waqf Fund has a total of 21 member institutions.-TradeArabia News Service