Curtin University, Malaysia – The 27th Malaysian Finance Association International Conference 2025 (MFAIC 2025) was held at Curtin University, Malaysia Campus. The conference is designed as an academic forum that brings together the financial research community through a two-day agenda that includes an opening ceremony, keynote session and parallel presentation session. This activity was attended by Alan Prahutama, Ph.D – lecturer at the Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Diponegoro University (Undip), Semarang, Indonesia. One of the objectives of participation in this activity is to increase international networks so that in the future they can collaborate in the fields of education and research. In addition, this activity aims to improve science related to the latest research in the financial sector.
The agenda on the first day began with participant registration, then continued with the opening ceremony. The opening was attended by Guest of Honour YB Datuk Sebastian Ting Chiew Yew (Deputy Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry & Performing Arts I (Tourism), Sarawak, Malaysia). The opening series included the playing of the national anthem and a welcoming speech by Dr Lynn Ling (Chair, MFAIC2025), followed by an opening speech by Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Tuong Thu Vu, as well as special remarks by Professor Hooy Chee Wooi (President, MFA-Malaysian Finance Association). The opening also contained a special address by the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC).
Entering the main session, the first keynote speech was delivered by Professor Jonathan A. Batten (RMIT University) with the topic “Digital Transformation in Corporate Risk Management”. This material underscores the relevance of digital transformation in corporate risk management, while expanding academic perspectives on the changing risk landscape in organizations that are increasingly dependent on technology and data.
Furthermore, the conference continued with Pararrel session 1 as a forum for presentations and research discussions. In this session, Alan Prahutama delivered a presentation entitled “Application of Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) in Optimizing Stock Portfolio Formation using The Mean-Semivariance Approach“. The presentation session was carried out for 15 minutes, and 10 minutes continued with discussion. The author received input from other participants regarding the analysis techniques carried out, for example comparing with other cluster techniques.
After the lunch break and worship time, the activity continues with Conference Parallel Sessions 2 & 3. This activity is a dissemination of research through parallel presentations as well as providing a special space for presenters to obtain academic input on the progress of their research.
On the second day, the conference was opened with registration for late attendees and HRDF delegates, followed by Conference Parallel Session 4. The second keynote speech was delivered by Professor Felix Chan (Curtin University, Australia) with the topic “The future of data and its intersection with financial research: A reflection“. This session invited participants to reflect on the development of data and its relationship with financial research, including implications for research design, analytical approaches, and the quality of interpretation of findings in an increasingly digitized era.
After the break session, Professor Felix Chan continued his presentation through a Research Workshop entitled “Introduction to Data Wrangling and Visualisation Using Open-Source Tools“. The workshop emphasizes strengthening practical skills in data processing (wrangling) and visualization using open-source tools, which are essential to support neat, transparent, and communicative analysis in scientific publications and forums.