The development of the world's halal industry continues to experience rapid development from year to year. Indonesia and Malaysia as one of the players are considered to need to work together more to be able to jointly dominate the global halal industry ecosystem.
Indonesian Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Malaysia, Hermono, said the halal industry was the sector that experienced the fastest growth in the last 50 years. In the past, the topic of the halal economy was limited to food and beverages. But now, it continues to expand to various products such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, tourism, to logistics services. He also noted that currently the value of trade in the halal industry is US$2.2 trillion per year. "This is the challenge that we have before us. How can Indonesia and Malaysia as Muslim countries take advantage of this enormous potential with enormous challenges ahead," said Hermono in the Malaysia-Indonesia Halal Forum and Industry Engagement 2023, Tuesday (17 /1/2023).
He said, Malaysia as a large Muslim country with progress in the halal economy could cooperate more with Indonesia. On the one hand, Indonesia is currently also focusing on certifying halal products until 2024. Meanwhile, the fact is that many non-Muslim countries have even become players in the world's halal industry. Such as Brazil, Thailand, Singapore, and Australia. "They are not Muslim countries but all of them are the biggest major players in the halal food industry," said Hermono.
The cooperation that can be established is not only in the food industry. But in the Muslim-friendly tourism sub-sector where Indonesia has large resources. "This is an example that we can map together," he said.
Deputy Secretary General of Malaysia's Ministry of Industry and International Trade, Sri Norazaman bin Ayob, said, as neighboring countries, Malaysia and Indonesia are in a good position to take advantage of enormous business potential. "We hope to understand each other better as far as our respective ecosystems of the halal industry are concerned," said Norazaman.
Malaysia, said Norazaman, is taking advantage of Indonesia as a strategic partner in trade that is able to encourage the development of the world's halal industry. "Indonesia is Malaysia's fifth largest halal trading partner where halal exports from Malaysia to Indonesia are around 10 billion ringgit from 2017 to 2021," he said.
In line with Hermono, Norazaman said that there are many sub-sectors of the halal industry besides food and drink that can be collaborated between the two countries. These include cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products. Therefore, his party encourages each country to be able to identify a space for joint business cooperation.
