Malaysia: Halal Internal Auditors Programme for hotels

Bachok, Kelantan–The Minister of International Trade & Industry, Dato’ Seri Mustapa Mohamed, launched a specially designed programme on Halal Internal Auditors for hotels in Kota Bharu, Kelantan on 23 October 2011.

The initiative organised by Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC) will be the first such commitment to be undertaken for the hotel sector. It comes in the wake of the increasing discussion presently underway on how hotels are adapting to the requirements of Halal certification.

Even though the Halal certification is an option for hotels,  many have decided to embed the logo into their operational processes, with the aim to capturing a bigger tourism market especially tourists from the Middle East and the Gulf countries. The year 2011 foresees close to 500,000 tourists from the region.Due to this trend many hotels are adapting their services more and more to their Muslim guests.

“We would like to assume that up till now several four and five-star hotels in the bigger cities are fully aware of the requirements of halal certification. However, there is yet a fairly big number in the hospitality trade and sector that have to understand the whole picture of Halal and its ancillary requirements for clean, safe and hygienic attributes,” said Dato’ Seri Jamil Bidin, chief executive officer of HDC.

Jamil also added, ” Halal tourism is becoming more and more popular each year. Malaysia, for instance, has been leading the way in the halal tourism industry and has been successful in trying to attract Muslim tourists from all over the world, especially the Middle Eastern travelers, by offering facilities in accordance with the religious beliefs of these Muslim tourists. HDC, being the key developer in the Halal Industry, is always looking for ways to assist the industry in getting ahead and I believe by offering this programme, hotels are pre-equiped when applying for Halal certification.”

The Halal Internal Auditors (HIA) programme for Hotels is being carried out in close cooperation with the Malaysia Association of Hotels (MAH), and Jakim.

“The HIA comes as a next step to a dialogue we held with hoteliers in June 2009 and followed by Halal Awareness Programme in 2010 . The feedback from this dialogue indicated that many would like to become truly well versed with the entire checklist of requirements of Halal certification.

“The HIA is actually an expansion of HDC’s existing Internal Auditing workshop programme (HIP03).  Halal auditing has always been a mainstay in our training programmes, as Halal integrity is an encompassing concern in the Halal eco-system. HIA workshops will be offered to 15 more ready and willing hotels throughout Malaysia until end of 2011, and will continue in the following years,” added Jamil.

Participating hotel personnel will include executives and managers in charge of Halal matters, quality control and quality assurance, production and general operations of the hotel.

The programme content includes shariah principles and requirements related to Halal, the technical components of raw materials & ingredients, Halal certification integrated requirements, which includes Halal standards and manual procedures of Halal Certification Malaysia, internal audit Halal components and mock audits.

The three-day course will comprise lectures, presentations, workshop discussion and simulated audits. The key outcomes will enable the personnel to manage its own internal audit programmes from the planning phase till final report stage.

-Ends-

ABOUT HALAL INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION SDN BHD (HDC)
Halal Means Business
The Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC) was established on 18 September 2006 with the express objective of coordinating the overall development of the Halal industry in Malaysia for both the domestic and international markets. HDC is an agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).

HDC is Malaysia’s holistic response to the worldwide demand for better quality products and services as consumers gain confidence in the Halal process. Its key thrusts are to grow and advance the development of Halal standards; facilitate capacity- building for halal products and services; and promote growth and participation of Malaysian companies in the multi-trillion dollar global halal market and industry. Today, there is an estimated population of 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide. The global halal market is currently estimated at USD2.3 trillion covering both food and non-food sectors.

In its effort to serve as an international hub for the halal industry, HDC provides manufacturers, distributors, retailers, entrepreneurs, researchers and investors with comprehensive assistance to penetrate and serve a growing global halal market through the adoption of the Malaysian experience and expertise in food and non-food sectors. For more information, please visit HDC at – www.hdcglobal.com.

NEWS RELEASE prepared and issued on behalf of Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC) by public relations consulting firms – Prestige Communications Sdn Bhd and GRA Communications Sdn Bhd. FOR MORE INFORMATION, please contact Shafina Syafei, Head, Strategic Marketing & Communications, HDC at +6019 3880280 or email shafina.syafei@hdcglobal.com OR Norsida Ahmad (PR-HDC) at +6012-324-9703 or email norsida.ahmad@hdcglobal.com OR Ghazalie Abdullah at +6017 3361090.

© Press Release 2011