Collaborate to develop halal parks, states told

STATE governments are encouraged to share knowledge, experience and expertise among themselves to develop halal parks in their respective states.

There are eight halal parks in the country that are doing well, having collectively attracted RM4.8 billion in investment so far. They include Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Malacca.

In facilitating the orderly development of halal parks, Halal Development Corp (HDC), an agency under the Minister of International Trade and Industry (Miti) which is responsible to spearhead the development of the local halal industry, has published a HDC Designated Halal Parks guideline.

To date, a total of 97 companies have either purchased factory sites, started factory construction or are operating at the various halal parks.
"Halal park is a new initiative that has a lot of processes. I won't say the parks that are less developed are failures, they are just relatively new," said Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed at the Third World Halal Research Summit 2010 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

"There should be a correlation between state governments to promote halal parks as well as support each other in the supply chain," he said.

Earlier, in his speech, Mustapa said Malaysia has developed the concept of halal parks which are dedicated economic zones with the infrastructure, incentives and support services readily available for potential investors.

"We also have the Global Halal Support Centre (GHSC) under HDC, which was established to be a world leader and global reference centre in halal knowledge and halal related services for both investors and consumers. GHSC hopes to be the one-stop centre for companies and service providers in halal-related sectors," he said.

Themed "Inspiring Innovation Through Halal Research", this year's summit focuses on encouraging innovation within halal research findings worldwide. It brings together the world's halal players to explore and discuss updates on research findings, emerging technologies, trends, issues and challenges within the halal industry.

While other countries are focusing on a certain halal products like halal food, halal meat or poultry, the government aims to develop a halal eco-system in the country.

The halal eco-system constitutes the components for a holistic halal supply chain incorporating production, research and development, banking and finance, logistics, tourism and other support services.

By Business Times