Malaysia: World Halal Forum 2011 To Unveil ‘Halal 2.0’

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 (Bernama) — The World Halal Forum (WHF) is expected to see the unveiling of “Halal 2.0” at this year’s event to be held on April 4-5 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

WHF director Abdalhamid Evans said Halal 2.0 would involve interactions between the Halal sector and Islamic finance, and he described it as “the biggest shift that we are going to see over the coming decade”.

“This is inevitable — they are the two great Shariah-compliant business sectors, and yet there is currently little or no interaction between them.

“The merging of these two sectors will give rise to areas of new growth and wealth creation,” he said at a press conference here Thursday.

WHF 2011, themed “Towards a Halal Economy: The Power of Values in Global Markets”, is expected to draw 900 delegates made up of business leaders, industry players, thought leaders, scholars and government officers.

The event is part of the week-long Halal Malaysia Week initiative which is a private-public sector collaboration between the WHF secretariat, Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation and Halal Development Corporation.

Meanwhile, KasehDia Sdn Bhd founder and managing director Jumaatun Azmi said her company would no longer own WHF.

WHF would be moving out from its patronage and shifted into a non-profit entity affiliated with International Halal Integrity Alliance (IHI Alliance) to enable WHF to take on the role of a change agent, shifting the dynamics of the global halal industry as it stands.

IHI Alliance chief executive officer Darhim Hashim said taking ownership of WHF and steering its new direction of offering solutions and executing an action plan was definitely within its expertise area.

He hoped this would give WHF 2011 a leg up with its international network and resources.

— BERNAMA