Amine Tarazi – Director of the Research Center dedicated to banking and finance (LAPE) has just obtained an Erasmus + “Capacity Building” project for the OPTimizing Research and Doctoral Programs project in BANKing and Finance in Indonesian Universities (OPTBank).

The OPTBank project targets the largest archipelago in the world, Indonesia, and gathers four European :

• University of Limoges (France)
• Bangor University (United-Kingdom)
• the University of Rome III  (Italy)
• and the Technological University of Crete (Greece)

and six Indonesian universities

• Universitas Sriwijaya,
• Syiah Kuala University,
• Universitas Tanjungpura,
• UIN Syarif Hidayatullah,
• Universitas Sebelas Maret
• and Institut Teknologi Bandung

as well as associated partners from governmental bodies and the civil society (Indonesian Central Bank,  Indonesian Deposit Insurance Corporation, Indonesian Finance Association…) with the aim of integrating and  enhancing research capacities and PhD programs in the field of Banking and Finance. The project involves some associated partners which are banking  regulators and official bodies in addition to universities.

According to the European Report on  Development 2015 “Indonesia Country Illustration”, there is a strong need to strengthen the financial sector  and financial stability in Indonesia which cannot be achieved without improving the quality of research in the area of  banking and finance.

The beneficiaries of the project are the faculty members, the PhD students and the graduate and undergraduate students of the 6 Indonesian partner universities but the project’s  outputs will also serve financially excluded households, microenterprises as well as the banking industry, the central bank, regulatory bodies and policy makers.

The project’s outputs will strengthen the link between universities and  the banking and financial sector with a broader dissemination to the society as a whole by targeting community services  on financial inclusion and financial literacy to contribute to higher standard of living for a large portion of the  population.