Malaysia: USD132 billion global potential by 2021 in Halal pharmaceuticals

CHEMICAL COMPANY OF MALAYSIA (CCM) TO NURTURE HIGH PERFORMING BUMIPUTERAS

Wednesday, 8th December 2016 – Chemical Company of Malaysia (CCM) today shared that the ccm-logo-onlycompany will continue to play an active role in spurring the Bumiputera Agenda through its current activities and future plans. Towards this end, CCM has identified Halal Pharmaceuticals as an industry that could be tapped into by Bumiputera entrepreneurs with expansive market possibilities. Since there is no apparent leader in the global Halal pharmaceutical industry, the company hoped that this USD132 billion potential market worldwide will open doors of opportunities for Bumiputeras, at the same time expanding CCM’s own market reach.

CCM recently held an event for its Bumiputera vendors who have been selected to be the participants of its Bumiputera Vendor Development Programme (BVDP), in collaboration with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). The event, themed ‘Spurring the Bumiputera Agenda through BVDP” involved pocket-talks, knowledge-sharing sessions and business clinics, was organised to serve as a valuable platform for CCM’s BVDP participants to gain beneficial insights on various areas including business facilitation and enablement. The pocket-talks were presented by MITI’s Technical Agencies with topics including technology commercialisation, enterprise innovation & intervention program (EIIP) and ideal technology partners for SMEs as well as an overview of Halal logistics. The participants also had the privilege of having Dr Nor Fuad Abdul Hamid, Director, Vendor Section, Bumiputera Entrepreneur and SME Division, MITI and Dato’ Husni Salleh, Chief Executive Officer of TERAJU sharing their knowledge and experience, together with the aspiration of their respective organisations to bring Bumiputera entrepreneurs to the next level and become champions in their respective fields.

The event was graced by YB Dato’ Hajah Normala Binti Abdul Samad Chairman of CCM and En Leonard Ariff Abdul Shatar, CCM Group Managing Director. According to En. Leonard Ariff, “CCM’s BVDP is our steadfast business commitment in line with our vision to “Enhancing Quality of Life” by supporting local businesses, at the same time strengthening and expanding our business to contribute to the economic growth of the communities that we operate in.”

MITI’s collaboration in organising this event, through the participation of its technical agencies in presenting the pocket-talks and offering the business clinics to CCM’s BVDP participants, is reflective of its support for CCM’s Bumiputera Agenda initiatives. CCM is a Bumiputera Corporate Public Listed Company (BCPLC) under an initiative by MITI and was one of the ten Anchor Companies who had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MITI in 2014, to affirm its commitment to help the Government develop Bumiputera entrepreneurs to succeed in their business ventures and contribute towards the nation’s wealth and prosperity, creating a balance economic participation with minimal gap between all ethnic groups in the country. The advantage to the 19 Bumiputera vendors who have been selected to be in CCM’s BVDP is the enhancement of their competitiveness and growth through the Business Competency programmes provided by MITI and CCM. They also stand to widen their networking opportunities, enabling them to spur further growth whilst at the same time having the prospects of participating in continuous procurement exercise throughout the duration of the BVDP.

En. Leonard Ariff further informed that currently, the Global Halal Pharmaceutical prospect stood at USD75 billion and is estimated to reach USD132billion by 2021. “At the domestic level, the pharmaceutical market size stood at RM6.6billion in 2015. Hence, there is a need to educate position and capture this market and to reduce the dependency on imports as well as increase the current market share of local manufacturers.”

He added, “CCM’s aspiration to spearhead Halal Pharmaceuticals was further motivated after being awarded the Halal Certification for its vitamins and health supplements in 1999, based on Halal Food Standards MS 1900. We then went on to lend support to various Government agencies in developing the World’s first Halal Pharmaceutical standard MS2424:2012. These culminated into recognition for CCM, by being the first to receive the Halal Malaysia certification for our pharmaceutical products in 2013. The company was also listed in the Malaysia Book of Records for this achievement.”

It is hoped that the knowledge and experience the country possesses on Halal matters will be the key driving force behind the Halal Pharmaceuticals ecosystem, making Malaysia the global thought leadership for this industry through the convergence of minds – Shariah and Science, opening opportunities for R&D in terms of products, services and also key reference documents. Consequently, it is expected that this thought leadership could lead to the expansion of market potentials for Halal-compliant vendors, including manufacturers, importing agents and logistics providers to tap-in thus making Malaysia the global leader in Halal Pharmaceuticals.

In view of the increasingly challenging global and domestic economic environment, the need to enhance participation of competitive and resilient Bumiputera companies had been recognised as a priority by the Government, based on four key principles: market-friendly, needs-based, merit-based and transparency. These key principles are also adopted by CCM in spurring the Bumiputera Agenda within its Group of Companies.