Exploring International Trade between Malaysia and GCC Countries: Empirical Analysis on Trends, Developments and Challenges

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is the largest economic group in the Middle Eastern region and rank seventeenth in the global economy. The establishment of a GCC custom union in 2003 that led to a flat rate of imports tax between 0 and 5 percent has encouraged a number of economic groups such as the European Union (EU) as well as other individual countries to have closed trade relations with the GCC economic bloc. Malaysia is also interested in expanding its trade relations with the Arab Gulf economies. As Muslim countries and members of the Organisation of Islamic Conferences (OIC), trade between Malaysia and the GCC countries is increasing and has lead to Malaysia’s proposal to expand this relation. Given this background, one of the main aims of this research is to explore in detail bilateral trade relations between Malaysia and the GCC countries and their determinants. In fulfilling this aim, this thesis examines Malaysia’s trade performances with the Arab Gulf region by analysing the trade intensity index and the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index. These analyses reveal favourable countries for Malaysia to trade within the GCC, and also niche products for Malaysian exports. The competitiveness of Malaysian main products that are exported to the GCC countries is also compared to its rivals. To provide further evidence, surveys with Malaysian traders and authorities were conducted. The survey with Malaysian traders was purposely to measure their perceptions of the GCC economic bloc. The surveys also identify traders’ motivation for doing business in this market as well as challenges and obstacles in expanding Malaysian exports to these economies. In collecting this evidence, the combination of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect the primary data; and the data were analysed through interpretative and textual analysis along with statistical analysis including factor analysis. Based on the findings, it can be said that trade relations with the GCC countries is still insignificant in comparison to that with Malaysia’s major trading partners. Nevertheless, due to Malaysia’s niche products, expansion strategy of services sectors in both Malaysia and the GCC countries and the existence of favourable countries to trade in the GCC, these may create huge potential for expansion. The findings also reveal that, cultural differences and lack of capital have been the major problems for Malaysian businessmen in doing business with the GCC region. The findings also indicate that there is a growing interest in establishing a Malaysia–GCC free trade agreement as shown by Malaysian traders. Key findings from the aforementioned analyses are then constructed by employing a SWOT analysis based on the current trade relation between Malaysia and the Gulf countries in constructing viable recommendation for future relation between Malaysia and the GCC member within the aspirations of OIC

Macroeconomic variables and Malaysian Islamic stock market: a time series analysis

This research will focus on the relationship between the development of Islamic stock market and macroeconomic variables in Malaysia. Generally, the purpose of this research is to observe this relationship in Malaysian context. In order to achieve the objective, an estimation of Vector Auto Regression (VAR) method was appli ed on the created research model. The variables involved in this research are Kuala Lumpur Syariah Index (KLSI), Industrial Production Index (IPI), Consumer Production Index (CPI), Aggregate Money Supply (M3), Islamic Inter Bank Rate (IIR) and Exchange Rat e of Malaysian Ringgit - United States Dollar. This research used monthly data from April 1999 to October 2007 taken from authorized sources. The findings showed that Islamic stock prices are co - integrated with the selected macroeconomic variables in which the stock price is related positively and significantly with IPI and CPI variables but related negatively and significantly with M3 and MYR variables. Meanwhile, its relation with IIR variables is found negative but insignificant. From the aspect of Gran ger causal relationship it is found that variables of CPI, M3 and MYR are the Granger cause for KLSI and the KLSI is the Granger cause for IPI, CPI and MYR

Design of Stacked Wafers AMC at 920 MHz for Metallic Object Detection in RFID Application

Artificial Magnetic Conductor, AMC is introduced into RFID application to overcome the problem of metal object detection. The AMC act as the Perfect Magnetic Conductor, PMC exhibits a reflectivity of +1 (in-phase reflection). In this paper, the stacked wafers AMC structure is designed to operate at 920 MHz frequency. The proposed stacked wafers AMC is an evolution from the basic square patch AMC. By introducing different size of slots into the square patch will help to reduce the frequency hence increase the bandwidth of the reflection phase. Another method to increase the bandwidth is by increasing the thickness of the structure. For the single cell of stacked wafers AMC proposed in this paper, the simulated bandwidth is 3.5% with reduced size of 45.56% than the square AMC. An optimized structure of 3x2 stacked wafers AMC give better return loss = - 21.8 dB and gain = 3.04 dB with total efficiency of 82.3%

THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON STUDENT RELIGIOSITY AT AHMAD DAHLAN UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

The spread of Covid-19 has had a significant impact on education, especially in the field of religion. The purpose of this study was to see how the pandemic affected the efforts of Ahmad Dahlan University Yogyakarta to increase student religiosity. The participants in this study were eight students and university officials from Ahmad Dahlan University in Yogyakarta’s PAI Study Program. Purposive sampling was used as a technique for selecting study subjects. This study used an in-depth interview approach through an interview guide that had been made to collect data. Data analysis included stages such as grouping relevant themes or meanings from participant responses, describing textually and structurally, and fundamentally describing all important meanings into a complete picture of the phenomenological study findings experienced by participants. According to the findings, the Covid-19 pandemic had an effect on student religiosity. First, students’ religious spirit and motivation were diminished. Second, limited activities contribute to ennui among students. Third, the institution was working to develop policies and technological guidelines for the entire academic community’s activities. In addition, there was also optimization of social media for learning and strengthening religious activities through the campus’ official media channels

An exploration on Muslim’s motivation to enter the entrepreneurship

To date, the number of Muslim Bumiputera entrepreneurs, primarily Malay entrepreneurs who set up their own company and engaged in various businesses were increased but their success was far from the target. Hence, the purpose of this article was to identify the motivation that encouraged Muslims to venture into business. This study was a literature study where the researcher used secondary sources from articles, theses and scientific discourses. From the results of the literature study, the researcher found that there were five main factors that motivate Muslims to venture into business which were; Worship (Ibadah), dignity, external traits, economy and unity. When Muslims are motivated to involve in entrepreneurship, they are required to prosper the natural resources with their abilities bestowed by Allah SWT. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to empower themselves with the value skills (additional value) that complement the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. This is a starting point for the entrepreneurs who are always facing the obstacles and are always ready to compete on the global stage that requires certain skills to sharpen their competence level. This article useful empower more Muslim venture into Business

EXPLORING AL -FAUZ AL KABIR’S FIVE THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE QURAN: A PERSPECTIVE FROM SHAH WALI ALLAH AL-DEHLAVI

Purpose: This study explores the contribution of Shah Wali Allah al-Dehlavi’s work on the Quran to classify it into five categories (themes) using a qualitative methodology known as thematic analysis in today’s world of research, in his book Al-Fawz al-Kabir. This paper is an attempt to show the contributions of Muslim scholars in the world of research by introducing the research methodology which is used even in today’s modern world. Methodology: A qualitative comparative analysis was employed by reviewing both the approaches such as Thematic Analysis and the approach applied by Shah Wali Allah to find five sciences. Main Findings: The result showed that both research approaches are similar. This study concludes that [our] classical scholars have formulated and used the research methodologies which may be applicable and relevant to the current research paradigms. Applications: This article can be used as a gateway by academics to review and analyze the work of Islamic classical scholars specifically their research techniques to derive new research methodologies. Novelty/Originality: The work of Shah Wali Allah (SWA) on the Quran to find out the relationship between the research methodology employed by SWA and the Thematic Analysis has been studied

Active learning through student-centered activity in the instruction of Islamic education teachers as an implementation of the 21st century learning: a case study

Active learning through student-centered activity has a significant impact on learning as well as the mastery of the students. The implementation of student-centered activity blended with elements of active learning is among the foundation that forms the 21st century education. However, its implementation is often underestimated due to constraints faced by teachers. This article discusses the elements of active learning within student-centered activity implemented by Islamic Education teachers in primary schools applying the concept of 21st century learning in the process of teaching and learning. This study adopted the qualitative method conducted on seven teachers of Islamic Education primary school in the state of Melaka. In-depth interviews, observations and document analysis were performed for this study and the data were analyzed using NVivo 12.0. The finding indicated that there are six elements of active learning in the activities of student-centered learning that was implemented by the Islamic Education primary school teachers in the state of Melaka. All of the elements involved had demonstrated a pattern, in which all students are involved in the activities, all students perform their own activities, students learn from the activities, varied activities according to the level of students, several sets of activities in a single teaching session and edutainment activities. This study generally suggests a method that could serve as a guideline for teachers to carry out active learning through the student-centered activity in order to realize the concept of 21st century learning in the teaching and learning process