KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has urged the government to increase more positions and recruitment more people in order to ease the management under the halal certification department.
In a statement today, Jakim director-general Datuk Hakimah Mohd Yusoff said this was in line with the department's aspiration to improve and make the halal certification more efficient.
"To ensure the smooth management of Halal certification, Jakim welcomes and appreciates the government's attention to consider to enhance the management of Malaysian Halal certification.
"Therefore, through the Malaysian Halal Technical Steering Committee, proposals related to Halal governance will be refined appropriately to ensure efficient and proactive Halal management implementation," she said.
She also said Jakim has undertaken a Business Process Reengineering (BPR) to investigate the issues and causes of delays in managing Halal certification and successfully introduced the Malaysian Immediate Halal Certification Initiative (ISPHM) 2.0, a result of a pioneering project in managing the certification.
"As a result, from March to August this year, an impressive achievement was recorded through ISPHM 2.0, with a total of 560 applications, equivalent to 62.78 per cent, receiving Halal certification in less than 30 days.
"This demonstrates that ISPHM 2.0 has had a positive impact on the efforts and initiatives aimed at expediting the Halal certification process, reducing the processing time while upholding the integrity and quality of the halal certification process in compliance with Islamic law," she added.
She also said that based on these initiatives, the approach taken involves restructuring the application bureaucracy and enhancing the capabilities of existing support systems, without compromising the industry's compliance with the prevailing standards and procedures.
To ensure an increase in the number of applications for the Malaysian Halal Certification (SPHM) among Bumiputera entrepreneurs, she said Jakim will ensure that Halal awareness programmes are continued and implemented "on the ground" to meet entrepreneurs in need of guidance.
In collaboration with the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, she said Jakim is upgrading the MYeHALAL 2.0 system to make it more user-friendly and in line with current technological requirements.
"Jakim also welcomes the participation of the private sector in developing Halal support systems such as i-Bimbing and MyHMS to assist the industry in making thorough preparations before submitting SPHM applications," she added.