Among the objectives of the Third Industrial Master Plan (IMP3) 2006 – 2020, is to make Malaysia the “Global Halal Hub” for the production and trade in Halal products and services. There is great potential for developing and promoting Halal products and services in the global market;
- The Muslim population is about 1.6 billion and spread across the world. It is estimated by 2010, the global Muslim population will be approximately 3.0 billion;
- Halal products and services are also gaining increasing acceptability among non-Muslim; and
- The global value in trade for Halal food and non-food products is estimated at USD1.2 trillion annually. This market has created interest among food producing countries, both Muslim and non-Muslim.
The growing interest in the potential market has hasten the move towards the development of global standards as well as expanded the coverage of standards to include activities such as logistics and packaging.
Malaysia has the edge in the development of the Halal industry as it is a modern Islamic country with an open economy and a well developed physical and institutional infrastructure, capable of supporting initiatives and programmes to develop and promote the industry.
Further, Malaysia has unique advantages in developing and promoting the Halal products and
services industry as:
- It is viewed as a progressive Islamic and business friendly country by both Muslim and non-Muslim world communities;
- It has established a firm industrial base and is progressing towards a higher level of industrialization;
- It is strategically located within the Asia Pacific region, with potential benefits from the presence of major areas of production and consumption;
- It has created a conducive operating environment, in particular, necessary policies and an efficient institutional infrastructure to support the development of the industry.
- Availability of Halal end-to-end services from Halal product traceability to Islamic Finance facilitation;
- Easier Trade & Market access into member countries of Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) because Malaysia is the presiding Chairman;
- Malaysia is a nation which has enjoyed long period of political stability; and
- Being a multi-racial and multi-lingual country made up of predominantly Malays, Indians and Chinese, makes it easier to employ Chinese personnel for use of trade-lingual skills for export purpose into countries such as China.
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