Salaam Gateway from Thomson Reuters, launched in Dubai last year in partnership with the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC), is a source of intelligence on all sectors of the Islamic economy. Available in both English and Arabic, the online platform covers the seven pillars of the Islamic economy - food, finance, travel and tourism, fashion, arts and design, pharmaceutical and cosmetics, media and recreation as well as e-commerce. It is designed to serve as a major source of research, information and data for Muslim professionals and to help them widen their understanding of the Islamic economy and explore opportunities open to them.
“Salaam Gateway offers a knowledge-sharing platform at this world’s biggest halal trade fair. Through this partnership, businesses, policymakers and Muslim professionals will be able to gain access to the full spectrum of the Islamic asset classes from across the regions. This will enable us to generate viable solutions to speed up the industry’s growth,” said Chief Executive Officer of MATRADE Dato’ Dzulkifli Mahmud.
Salaam Gateway is also structured as a business-to-business (B2B) tool for Muslim professionals, facilitating the sourcing and trading of halal products and services through a database of halal companies from across the globe. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from this platform by listing their business to gain visibility. It also presents an opportunity for companies to widen their business network and forge profitable partnerships.
“The introduction of Salaam Gateway marks a major step towards the globalisation of the Islamic economy and MIHAS, which represents the global halal marketplace, is the ideal platform to share this knowledge with the world,” said Nadim Najjar, Managing Director, MENA, Thomson Reuters.
According to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report (SGIE 2015-2016), developed by DIEDC and Thomson Reuters, Muslim consumers’ spending exceeded US$1.8 trillion in 2014, with solid growth recorded across several sectors of the Islamic economy.
“In understanding the needs and priorities of Muslim consumers, it will require more study and research to be undertaken and the result will offer a new level of products and service development for the growth and evolution of the halal market. More knowledge-sharing will enable businesses to explore the opportunities available to them in the emerging new Islamic economy,” said Dato’ Dzulkifli.
The halal agenda is very much part of the Government’s policy to promote the growth and development of Malaysia. The 13th MIHAS, part of World Halal Week 2016, is scheduled to take place at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC). It will feature a trade fair and an International Sourcing Programme (INSP).
The trade fair showcases participation of companies supplying various products and services such as halal consumables, non-food products & services, food packaging, machinery & catering equipment, Islamic investment, banking and takaful. A total of 640 booths will be set up, and over 25,000 visitors are expected to attend the event.
"Malaysia has earned an international recognition as one of the pioneers in the global halal marketplace. The halal ecosystem is well developed in Malaysia, and this is a strong catalyst for the huge growth in the industry,” said Dato’ Dzulkifli.
“Halal certified bumiputera companies are a major contributor to the industry. Last year, MIHAS saw the participation of 108 bumiputera companies. We hope to see this number increase significantly this year with more bumiputera SMEs exhibiting their products at MIHAS.”
Aiming to accelerate sales of halal products and services from Malaysia, the INSP will be organised on 29 March 2016. INSP is a business matching programme for Malaysian companies and was previously known as the Incoming Buying Mission or IBM. The sourcing programme aims to match 500 Malaysian companies with over 350 buyers from 41 countries.
Last year, the business matching programme had successfully generated RM443.2 million of sales while the sales from the trade fair were RM655.8 million, bringing the total sales of MIHAS 2015 to RM1.1 billion. With an interplay of various external factors in the global economies, these figures are expected to increase by 2% this year.
The contribution of halal exports to Malaysia’s economy continues to grow, reaching an estimated RM42 billion in 2015, creating 200,000 jobs and supporting 800 SMEs to date.
Besides MIHAS 2016, other components of the World Halal Week are the World Halal Conference 2016 organised by the Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC) and the Halal Certification Bodies Convention organised by Department of Islamic Development (JAKIM).
Interested?
Read the Suroor Asia blog posts about the INSP, the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report and the launch of Salaam Gateway
Hashtag: #mihas2016
Hashtag: #mihas2016