Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (July 2): Standard Chartered Saadiq and Halal Development Corp Bhd (HDC) have inked a memorandum of understanding to enable local halal businesses to expand beyond Malaysia.

In a joint statement today, HDC said despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent fluctuation in crude oil prices, the halal industry continues to show resilience due to its strong fundamentals.

It said the crisis has brought on a renewed sense of demand to halal products as it is recognised as a hallmark of hygiene, product safety, and reliability.

Hairol Ariffein Sahari, chief executive officer (CEO) of HDC, said in 2019 the total export value of Malaysian halal products stood at RM40.2 billion, a slight increase from RM40 billion compared with 2018.

He said this was backed by higher demand from the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.

"This demand for halal products is not only seen in the Muslim-majority countries but is widespread across China, Japan, the US, Europe and the rest of the world. The various financing facilities in the Penjana economic recovery plan offer good relief measures for local businesses to sustain and improve their product offerings and service innovation."

"Product consolidation, cross-industry collaboration and an increased effort in marketing and promotion will be the catalysts of growth for the industry. We welcome the collaboration with Standard Chartered Saadiq as the Islamic Financing bank-of-choice, as an enabler to increase scale and global market penetration," he said.

Malaysia's halal exporters registered growth of 2.7% in 2019, in tandem with the upsurge in global demand for halal-certified products. Equally important is the growing awareness of integrating Islamic financial services in the operating of halal businesses, HDC said.

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Saadiq CEO Mohd Suhaimi Abdul Hamid said its partnership with HDC reinforces its commitment to providing end-to-end shariah compliance in the operations of halal businesses and strengthening the ecosystem of the industry.

"Our unparalleled network advantage spanning across Asia, Africa and the Middle East provides clients access to new markets and allows us to be a key driver in facilitating business matching opportunities for local halal businesses in their global expansion," he said.

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