KUALA LUMPUR: The halal industry players must embrace the e-commerce push as the traditional brick and mortars mode of doing business is on its way out, said the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the e-commerce cluster, which made its debut at this year’s Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS 2017) will play a more important role going forward.
“As you know, Malaysia has already partnered with global e-commerce giant, Ali Baba Group in the creation of the Digital Free Trade Zone (DTFZ),” he said at MIHAS 2017.
“Earlier today, the Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had launched the world’s largest halal toyyiban focused e-marketplace, so that shows how important this segment is to the government.”
Mustapa said the e-commerce segment is also very much in line with the government’s objective of enriching the local small and medium enterprises (SME) sector.
“As you know, we are targeting to further drive the inclusion of SMEs in global business. We hope to increase SMEs contribution in export to 23 per cent by 2020 from the current 17.8 per cent. By having a more robust and accessible e-commerce ecosystem, we can help the SMEs to do that,” he said.
“The e-commerce agenda will not only be important for us in 2017, but for years to come.”
Mustapa said Malaysia is on track towards achieving a global Halal hub status by 2020 backed by a holistic ecosystem from end-to-end.
“We are strong especially in the food and beverage industry as compared to other countries and also have good recognition with our halal logo,” he said.
Mustapa is also confident that Malaysia will reach RM15 billion halal investment by 2020 from the current RM11 billion.
The halal market is currently valued at US$2.3 trillion annually with the halal food sector as its core component, valued at US$660 billion.
Exports of Halal products for Malaysia in 2016 stood at RM39.3 billion.
Malaysia’s halal exports are also projected to contribute 8.7 per cent to Malaysia’s gross domestic product by 2020.