MANILA: The Philippines is seeking to collaborate with Arab countries to empower Filipino entrepreneurs and further expand its local halal industry, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos told Arab News.

Muslims make up around 10 percent of the 120 million predominantly Catholic population of the Philippines, where the government has been looking to significantly expand the domestic halal industry.

Manila wants to raise 230 billion pesos ($4 billion) in investments and generate 120,000 jobs by 2028 by tapping into the global halal market, which is estimated to be worth more than $7 trillion.

The NCMF, a government agency whose mandate is to promote the rights and welfare of Muslim Filipinos, has been central in the nation’s efforts to ensure that halal products and initiatives developed in the country comply with Islamic regulations.

This year, as the agency established the Halal Division under its Bureau of Muslim Economic Affairs, officials are working on increasing collaboration with Arab countries to accelerate efforts in the Philippines’ ongoing halal drive.

“We are hoping that Arab countries like Saudi Arabia can also provide us training on how they (develop) their halal ecosystem, or they want to invest here to build a halal hub, that is in the picture. I think Saudi is a good country to start,” Hamdan Moslem, the bureau’s development management officer, told Arab News.

Hazrat Adnan Macabando, also a development management officer at the bureau, said that empowering Muslim Filipinos to learn more about the halal ecosystem is important as “halal includes almost everything — cosmetics, food, travel, fashion,” he said.

The Philippines has set big targets to expand its domestic industry and aims to position itself as an Asia-Pacific hub of the halal industry.

Last October, the Department of Trade and Industry announced that the Southeast Asian country is aspiring to become “the most halal-friendly trade and investment hub in the Asia Pacific region.”

The DTI then launched a strategic plan to develop the halal industry in January to strengthen domestic halal trade and export, facilitate more investment to generate jobs, and address halal integrity across the nation.

“As we prepare our country to be a halal gateway and destination in the Asia Pacific, we need to upskill our human resources through capacity-building and build more awareness,” Aleem Guiapal, DTI Halal Industry Development program manager, told Arab News.

“We will be more keen and aggressive both in promoting a halal-friendly Philippines in the domestic trade and facilitating economic missions abroad.”