Indonesia to host int’l halal lifestyleconference

People visit a restaurant offering halalmeals at the Botani Square shopping mall in Bogor, West Java. (JP/TheresiaSufa)

Bank Indonesia (BI) will organize theInternational Halal Lifestyle Conference and Business Forum to help unlockIndonesia’s potential in the global halal industry chain.

BI’s sharia finance director Anwar Bashorisaid in Jakarta on Monday that BI would team up with the Halal Lifestyle Centerin the conference at the Jakarta Convention Center from Oct. 3 to 5.

He said there was a great market for halalproducts given the increasing trend in global markets and Indonesia couldbecome a major producer country of halal products in addition to the need tosupply its huge domestic market.

“However, today we are still consumers.Indonesia needs to change its position to become a producer of halal products.[…] So, we need to strengthen our halal industry,” Anwar said at a pressconference.

According to the latest data from theGlobal Islamic Economic Report 2017-2018, Indonesia ranked 11th in the Islamicfinance indicator, despite the fact that the country has the largest Muslimpopulation in the world. Neighboring Malaysia was in the top rank.

Meanwhile, Halal Lifestyle Center chiefSapta Nirwandar said Indonesia needed to do many things to boost the halal foodindustry, including creating a supportive halal industry ecosystem, draftingregulation, effective promotion and ensuring close coordination among therelevant sectors.

“We don’t have a regulation to establish ahalal ecosystem. Each sector works separately. What we want to address is howto connect halal tourism to halal food and maybe also halal hotels,” he toldjournalists. (bbn)

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