Chinese firms keen to team up with locals to penetrate global halal market

Tee (third from left) inspecting a scale model of the Iskandar Halal Park.

ISKANDAR PUTERI: Some Chinese food production companies are interested to invest in Johor’s halal-based food processing industries due to Malaysia’s widely-recognised halal certification.

State tourism, domestic trade and consumerism committee chairman Datuk Tee Siew Kiong said his official visit to several halal-based enterprises in Xinjiang and Gansu, China, last month was warmly received as they recognised Malaysia’s reputation for quality halal products.

He said large companies were interested to team up with local food processing companies, which have halal certification, to penetrate the global halal market.

“Our country’s halal certification is widely recognised in 56 countries worldwide and Chinese companies see the significance in a collaboration to penetrate the global halal market,” he said at the Iskandar Halal Park pocket talk, one of the side events at the Johor Expo Kemajuan in Kota Iskandar.

He said Chinese companies wanted to expand their market to Muslim-majority countries but did not have the know-how or halal certification to do so.

Tee also urged local small and medium enterprises to take advantage of the 141.64ha Iskandar Halal Park facility to expand their business in halal food processing and take their business to the global level.

The halal park’s chief executive officer Mohd Noor Abdul Salim said the halal certification process was sped up by Malaysia Islamic Development Department (Jakim) recently.

He said it used to be a long and tedious process to obtain such certificates but applicants could get approval between three to 30 working days, provided the applicants met all the required criteria.

“I was informed by Jakim that about 90% of the applications they received this year were approved within three to seven days,” he said.

Iskandar Halal Park, formerly known as Johor Halal Park, also provides a 10-year tax relief for investors in its facilities.

The 40.46ha first phase of the halal park is set to be completed by end of this year while its second phase, covering 82.96ha, is slated for construction in 2018 to 2020.