UTAR Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) hosted the official launch of
the Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association (APAEA) on 8 November
2017 at Kampar Campus.
From left: Dr Au Yong, Prof Paresh, Wa, Prof Choong and Dzalin during
the launching ceremony
Founded in 2017, APAEA is a not-for-profit association that holds annual
meetings, with aims to provide forum and resource base for developing
research capacity and to collaborate with academic and non-academic
institutions in the region to jointly host conferences and workshops
associated with special issues of respected field journals.
A group photograph to mark the ceremony
The official launch of APAEA was officiated by the Special Officer to
Deputy Minister of Finance Daniel Wa Wai How representing Deputy
Minister of Finance Malaysia, Dato’ Lee Chee Leong. He was accompanied
by UTAR Vice President for Student Development and Alumni Relations Prof
Dr Choong Chee Keong representing UTAR President Ir Prof Academician
Dato’ Dr Chuah Hean Teik, APAEA President Alfred Deakin Prof Paresh
Narayan, Deputy President of Operation of International Centre for
Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) Dzalin Ayuband UTAR FBF Dean Dr Au
Yong Hui Nee.
In conjunction with the official launch of APAEA, UTAR with APAEA also
co-organised the 3rd Applied
Financial Modelling Conference from 8 to 9 November 2017. Themed ‘The
Importance of Commodity Markets in Financial and Macroeconomic
Stability’, the 3rd Applied
Financial Modelling Conference was a great platform for thought sharing
on research finding and networking on commodity markets, energy
economics, including energy funding and energy econometrics.
The conference saw the participation of about 30 academics from United
Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Pakistan and Malaysia.
Prof Paresh explaining the roles of APAEA
As the President of the newly launched APAEA, Prof Paresh briefly
introduced APAEA and its roles as well as the benefits of APAEA to all
the participating academics. He explained, “The APAEA’s key aim is to
provide a forum and resource base for developing research capacity of
researchers in the Asia-Pacific region, with a particular focus on
applied econometrics and Islamic finance and economics research. The
APAEA’s aim is supported by the regions central banks and other
financial institutions. In addition to that, the association also aimed
to collaborate with universities in the region to jointly host
conferences and workshops associated with economics and finance.” He
added, “Interested researchers and institutions are encouraged to join
the association by attending its conferences or by applying to the
association for membership.”
Prof Choong emphasising the importance of APAEA to participants
In his address, Prof Choong said, “With the launching of APAEA, I
believe researches will be more than just to give knowledge and
solutions to students and academics, but I anticipate that multiple
researches will also be carried out, especially in the Asia-Pacific
region. This will also lead to the expansion of opportunities for
various universities, organisations and research institutions to
collaborate with APAEA and with each other on diversified topics, in
this case, on topics of finance and economics. APAEA initiatives and
strong focus in research field are also well supported by UTAR. As
a university that places great emphasis on researches, UTAR believes
that active researching and cross-international researches with other
parties are vital for students and academics to gain broader knowledge
and help solve global issues.It is delighted to also know that APAEA is
a strong advocate for women’s participation in research by offering
research grants to them, which I believe will also open up many ideas
and perspectives towards research.”
Dzalin stressing the importance of quality research outputs toward
industry
Dzalin in his speech enthused that, “As the world’s first and only
university dedicated to Islamic Finance, INCEIF is committed to
delivering talent and expertise for the growing global industry. Backed
by a faculty that comprises pioneering academicians and industry players
who jointly address issues relating to innovation and leadership within
the industry, INCEIF ensures its academic programmes and graduates stay
at the forefront of the industry. To achieve this aspiration, we require
the support from everyone, be it from the financial industry, the
academia or the man on the street, to build this legacy of sustainable,
distinctive excellence alongside us.”
Wa gracing the launching ceremony
In his opening speech, Wa said, “It is indeed a great pleasure for me to
be here to mark this auspicious yet meaningful launching of APAEA and
the opening ceremony of the 3rd Applied
Financial Modelling Conference. I was told that the conference delegates
attending today come from a multitude economic and applied financial
disciplines. I believe it will be an eye-opening experience to be
present among the esteemed speakers, local and international
participants, academicians, practitioners and researchers today, as we
come together to discuss and exchange ideas and knowledge.” He added,
“The launching of APAEA is indeed a good opportunity for academics,
researchers and higher learning institutions to network, organise
conferences as well as to discuss and learn new insights from other
researchers and their research outcomes from all over the world. I
strongly believe that today’s conference will provide productive
discussions throughout the day among all the participating scholars.”
Prof Choong (left) presenting a token of appreciation to Wa
Structured as a key initiative in providing a significant opportunity
for researchers and academics to present their research findings, the
conference saw the submission of about 30 papers.
Prof Paresh delivering his keynote address
Prof Mansor delivering his knowledge on macro-financial
Professor of Finance and Econometrics of INCEIF Prof Dr Mansor Hj
Ibrahim and Prof Paresh were the keynote speakers and presented their
talk titled “Oil and Macro-Financial Linkages” and “Islamic Stock
Sensitivity to Oil Prices and Economic Significance” respectively.
Among other topics covered at the 3rd Applied
Financial Modelling Conference were “Managing COP21 using a Stock and
Oil Market Integration Index”, “Understanding Corporate Debt for Global
Energy Firms”, “Disaggregated Economic Growth and Energy Use
Relationship: Evidence from OECD Countries”, “Do Country Risk and
Financial Uncertainty Matter for Energy Commodity Futures?”, “Human
Capital and Energy Consumption Nexus: Evidence from India”, “Terrorism
and Commodity Prices: An Exploratory Study”, “The Effects of Recent
Terrorist Attacks on Risk and Return in Commodity Markets”, “An Analysis
of Time-Varying Commodity Market Price Discovery”, “Commodities Futures
Market Failure: Evidence from Diammonium Phosphate”, “Volatility and
Bilateral Exports of Malaysia”, “The Wavelet Coherency Analysis of
Time-Varying Relationship between Oil Prices and Geopolitical Risk”,
“Oil Prices Shocks, Trade Intensity and Business Cycle Synchronization”,
“Electricity Futures and Stock Market Response to Electricity Sector
Material Disclosures”, “Electricity Production Mix and the EKC
Hypothesis: Evidence from 18 OECD Countries”, “Determinants of Power
Spreads in the Liberalized Electricity Markets”, “Behaviour of Oil
Prices and Stock Markets: Evidence from Asia and Arab Nations”, “A
Market Efficiency Index for Energy Futures Based on the Term Structure”,
“Evaluating the Hedging Performance of Malaysian Crude Palm Oil Futures
Contract: Insights into the Segmentation of Bull/Bear Market”, “Crude
Oil Price Uncertainty and Corporate Investment: New Global Evidence”,
“Sharia Compliant Stocks Are Efficient and Outperform?”, “A Time-Varying
Analysis on the Weak-Form Efficiency of Crude Oil Prices”, “Bond Return
Predictability: The Role of Commodity and Other Factors”, “A Looming
Revolution: Implications of Decentralised Electricity Generation and
Self-Consumption for Suppliers”, “Risk Exposure and Market Efficiency”,
“Can Energy Levy Reduce Air Pollution Induced from Energy Consumption?”,
“Is Oil Price Important to Biofuel Investment: Insights from Asymmetric
Modelling”, “Effects of Oil Price Movement on Nigerian Macroeconomic
Variables: Evidence from Linear and Nonlinear ARDL Modelling”,
“Financial and Economics Antecedents of Carbon Emissions: A Dynamic
Heterogeneous Panel Estimation Study of ASEAN-5 Countries”, and “Panel
Evidence on the Ability of Oil Returns to Predict Stock Returns in the
G7 Area”.