Local halal parks attract RM16.1b investment since 2011

By SHAHEERA AZNAM SHAH / Pic TMR

MALAYSIA’S halal parks have attracted a cumulative RM16.1 billion investment since 2011, of which RM9.5 billion or 59% came from foreign direct investment and RM6.6 billion from domestic direct investment (DDI).

Halal Development Corp Bhd (HDC) said Malaysia recorded an increase of RM200 million, or 1.25%, in DDI into the halal parks in 2020, signalling the industry’s ability to grow despite facing economic uncertainty.

“The past year had been both unprecedented and extraordinary.

Despite the widespread devastation caused by the global pandemic, several notable achievements were recorded from the overall performance of the local halal industry,” HDC said in a statement yesterday.

It said a total of 295 companies are currently in operation across 21 halal parks in Malaysia, comprising 42 multinational corporations (MNCs) and 253 locally- owned companies.

“At the global arena, Malaysia once again emerged in the annual Global Islamic Economy Indicator for 2020 and 2021, its eighth year in a row, as a leader in four out of six categories,” HDC said.

The agency said local halal exporters have been relying on conventional regional trading partners, including Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand for support amid travel restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“HDC’s proprietary data sources and analysis for 2020 showed that in terms of bilateral trade, Singa- pore is Malaysia’s biggest importer of halal products in 2020.

“With a total export value of RM4.1 billion, the city-state relegated China’s RM3.44 billion to the second spot, while the US came in third with RM1.74 billion.

“Thailand with RM1.48 billion worth of export value and Indonesia (RM1.34 billion) both came in fourth and fifth respectively, and were able to help cushion the full economic impact from the border closures,” it said.

Due to the travel limitation, Malaysia’s halal exports contracted by approximately RM10 billion from RM40.2 billion in 2019 to RM30.5 billion in 2020, which corresponded with the 19% reduction in the number of Malaysian halal exporters.

HDC said the number of local halal exporters fell from 1,876 in 2019 to 1,507 in 2020.

“Aside from the Movement Control Order, the drop also corresponds with the timeline of a system upgrade for the halal certification process, which was conducted to facilitate online renewals and virtual submissions of supporting documents,” HDC said.

In terms of sectoral contribution, HDC said halal food and beverages continued to be the main contributor to the Malaysian halal economy with RM17.4 billion, followed by halal ingredients (RM8.83 billion), cosmetics and personal care (RM2.67 billion), palm oil derivatives (RM890 million), industrial chemicals (RM470 million) and halal pharmaceuticals (RM300 million).