Malaysia: HDC Signs MOAs With Five International Organisations

imagesPUTRAJAYA, Sept 18 (Bernama) — Halal Industry Development Corp (HDC) has signed memorandum of agreements (MOAs) with five international organisations from Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to establish Halal Footprint programme.

HDC Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Seri Jamil Bidin, said under the programme, the agency will encourage investors to use Malaysia as a springboard to access halal markets and position the country as the ideal investment destination.

“The programme also aims to promote bilateral trade and investment within the global halal market which is valued at over US$2.3 trillion annually,” he told a media briefing before the signing of the MOAs here on Wednesday.

Jamil said the world population was set to grow by 22 per cent over the next 18 years and will contribute to an increase in demand for halal products and services.

The participating organisations in the programme include Halal Development Internal Japan Corp, Halal Development Internal Korea Corp, Halal Development Internal Shanghai Corp, Halal Development Internal Taiwan Corp and Halal Development Internal HK Corp (Hong Kong).

He said Malaysia halal’s exports to the East Asian market, which were worth US$2.5 billion last year, constituted 26.9 per cent of total halal exports valued at US$9.29 billion during the same year.

Meanwhile, Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, said the government hoped that the collaborations with the five countries will help boost halal awareness in the countries and encourage investment in the halal sector in this country.

“This is part of a marketing strategy to use our local expertise to penetrate the markets, especially Japan, which has a strong interest in halal industry,” he told a media briefing.

Mustapa said the Japanese interest, however, was only in the Malaysian market.

“In the Asian region, they have been talking with us to use Malaysia as the springboard to get access to the markets in Europe and Middle East as well.

“This is what we aim to achieve via the collaboration where they can set up production facilities in this country and make Malaysia as their base to export their products,” he said.

The minister said the ‘halal’ awareness was on the rise in Japan and the Japanese knew that with the ‘halal’ logo they will be in the best position to penetrate these markets.

“The Japanese companies know that Malaysia has a well-established halal ecosystem and via the Look East policy we enjoy very close ties with Japan to boost this sector,” he said.

— BERNAMA