enrolment will commence in june 2006. inceif also offers post - graduate programmes in islamic finance that will include specialised masters and ph. d. programmes in the various islamic finance disciplines. inceif will be governed by the inceif governing council and the professional development panel. the inceif governing council, comprising eminent local and international professors from the academia and industry practitioners, will set the strategic direction and provide visionary global insights on the learning needs of the islamic financial services industry. the professional development panel, with vast experience in the islamic finance industry and academia well represent the authority in academic matters and will have the responsibility for establishing the academic policies of inceif as well as the quality assurance of the cifp and post - graduate programme modules. the academic faculty will include permanent as well as regular visiting professors and scholars - in - residence. inceif will also form strategic alliances with leading local and international learning institutions to complement our pursuit to provide world - class knowledge for the benefit of the industry in particular, and the ummah in general. it is our vision that inceif will one day be an international nucleus for tertiary education in islamic finance, training and research and provide a strong support in the development of islamic financial infrastructure. with the grace of allah, and with the support of the international islamic financial community, it is our hope that inceif will make a meaningful contribution to the future development of islamic finance for the benefit of the ummah. in closing, once again, i would like to express our deepest appreciation to the yang amat berhormat, dato'seri abdullah haji ahmad badawi, prime minister of malaysia for gracing this occasion and for accepting to officiate the launch of inceif.

the oecd average, the south and the islands fall worryingly below ( slide 7 ). 16. these gaps translate into analogous gaps for italian adults. the programme for the international assessment of adult competencies ( piaac ) carried out by the oecd between 2013 and 2016 indicates that, at each age cluster, italian adults perform invariably worse than the average adult in the oecd ( slide 8 ). in particular, it reveals, for our country, a widespread lack of those skills – reading and understanding, applying logic and analysing – that respond to modern life and work needs. for example, in literacy proficiency, about 70 per cent of italians appear to be unable to understand long and articulated texts adequately ( a result that makes italy one of the worst performers among the oecd countries participating in the test, in which this share is, on average, about 50 per cent ). in the numeracy test, a similar share turns out to be unable to successfully carry out relatively complex reasoning about quantities and data ( against about 50 per cent in the oecd average ). 17. financial competencies are also low in the international comparison. according to the survey conducted by the bank of italy at the beginning of 2020 as part of an international programme started by the oecd, italy ranks 23rd out of 26 countries according to a synthetic score that measures three areas of financial literacy : knowledge, behaviour and attitudes. italy ’ s score is lower even than that of non - oecd countries with very modest levels of gdp per capita. these findings suggest that the gap in financial literacy with other countries is attributable only in part to lower levels and quality of education or to other unfavourable social or economic conditions and suggests that there is plenty of room for improvement across all the areas of financial literacy. 18. one of the reasons for the gaps that i have just described is linked to the modest level of spending in education, which is especially low at the tertiary level ( slide 9 ). in 2016 the incidence of expenditure on tertiary education on gdp was 0. 9 per cent in italy, one of the lowest shares in the oecd. more effective and, in some cases, additional spending is required in many aspects. in primary and secondary education, the preparation and motivation of teachers are essential and should be adequately nurtured. buildings and infrastructures are often obsolete and, at times, have problems with their overall security, when they should instead