China’s Terracota Province Woos Malaysia To Build Halal Hub

By Tham Choy Lin

XIAN, April 5 (Bernama) — China’s Shaanxi province is wooing
Malaysia to help develop a halal park and certification in the region
famous for its army of terracotta warriors.

Entrepreneur and Coooperative Development Ministry (MECD) Deputy
Secretary-General Datuk Mohd Hashim Abdullah said Shaanxi planned to
build the halal hub within its free trade zone in Xianyang near this
provincial capital.

“The ministry will study the proposal first before referring it to
the Cabinet for decision,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of
Shaanxi’s annual Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between
East and West China which opened here Sunday.

He said that for such projects, it would be up to the private
sector to take the lead in with the ministry supporting them as a
facilitator.

“Shaanxi is also looking for investments for the halal park. This
is an opportunity towards a collaboration between Shaanxi and Malaysian
entrepreneurs and we have the halal expertise that is well-recognised
globally,” said Hashim.

To build on the momentum, he suggested to Shaanxi commerce
director-general Li Xuemei, in a meeting Saturday, that the two sides
set up a joint chamber of commerce for networking and business matching.

Li welcomed the idea, saying it would boost cooperation and give
entrepreneurs a better understanding of trade and investments with each
other.

“We hope to have further cooperation with MECD. Shaanxi offers
good opportunities in investments, trading, heavy machinery industry,
infrastructure construction and minerals,” she said.

“We will also encourage our entrepreneurs to import products which are special to Malaysia,” she said.

Shaanxi has a population of 37.5 million and about 80,000 to 100,000 of them are Muslims.

“This is a big market and the most important thing for us is that
Shaanxi wants to collaborate with Malaysian entrepreneurs through
MECD,” Hashim said.

He said Shaanxi commerce officials have visited Malaysia twice for
discussions with the ministry after MECD first attended the annual fair
here last year.

This time, the ministry brought a group of 28 of mostly halal food
producers, cooperatives and the Malay Chamber of Commerce to take part
in the four-day fair that has attracted several other Southeast Asian
countries, namely, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and, Myanmar.

— BERNAMA