The Selangor International Halal Convention (SELHAC) 2023 owes much of its success to Halal International Selangor’s (HIS) targets and expectations that focus on the potential business matching value of the event.
This year’s target was around RM50 million, but SELHAC, held in March, surpassed expectations by achieving RM55.7 million, a huge jump compared to last year’s goals.
Muhammad Syaril Showkat Ali (main image), HIS Toyyiba Sdn Bhd general manager, said the next SELHAC theme would focus on business skills and modules and the participation of organisations and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from other countries.
“Next is about the proportion of participation in Malaysia. This year, we invited Melaka and Kedah to our existing participating states – Penang and Negeri Sembilan,” said Syaril.
“The United Kingdom, Thailand, Australia, India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Brunei participated in the previous engagements and international visits.”
Besides business skills, there is also a need to focus on managing the finances of established organisations or SMEs.
Recently, HIS partnered with Bank Islam since they felt they lacked the Islamic financial instruments necessary for SMEs to obtain support and participate in the halal ecosystem.
“We focused on the end product, such as the halal certifications and logistics. But no one talks about the financial aspect and instruments such as being Syariah compliant, the absence of Riba, and others,” said Syaril.
The collaboration between HIS and Bank Islam would provide the necessary programmes tailored for SMEs. The programmes would provide financial training, consultation, a commerce platform and a halal supply chain, including halal foreign investment initiatives.
Additionally, the collaboration would also provide an Islamic SME financing initiative, which is a package that revolves around trade and facilities designed by SMEs, allowing them to embark on halal-certified businesses.
“This initiative is the first in Selangor and the first collaboration with Bank Islam where we enhance the importance of Islamic financing,” added Syaril.
“We also aim to have 100 participants from SELHAC participate in the programme package offered.”
Through this collaboration, Syaril hoped that they could solve the issues plaguing SMEs regarding finances, as some face challenges obtaining loans from banks due to the nature of the halal business.
This collaboration would assist SMEs in obtaining halal certifications and providing support through halal financing and training.
HIS has set its sights on other institutes and is developing plans to establish memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with local and foreign universities whose primary focus is providing training, education and laboratory equipment within the halal institution.
The idea behind this comes from the necessity of halving the time it takes for SMEs to receive their halal certification through a lengthy verification process. The initial time for SMEs to be verified would be one to six months.
Therefore, this lengthy process would be halved by having local and foreign universities assist in the verification process for SMEs when they want to apply for the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) halal certifications by renovating their laboratories and re-skilling their staff.
“This initiative was proposed last year, so this year, Selangor will be dispersing the necessary funds to renovate the planned laboratories,” he said.
“We are also looking forward to investments and businesses from foreign countries. We have engaged with Dubai Business Chambers and Canada to provide their business purposes. We have also engaged with the Aussie Trade from Australia and received an enthusiastic response from them with the halal segment,” Syaril added.
Due to the nature of the current economy, many SMEs and citizens are understandably on edge.
“What we can see from the state of the economy is that the big players can survive because they have a contingency of backup financial planning in an emergency. However, they still need help from the state itself,” said Syaril.
“The feedback we obtained from the industry players and SMEs is that they require financial support from the government as well as support from the authorities in terms of exemptions, giving better offers and engagement periods.”
HIS, through its SME Development Programme initiative, have crafted business schemes for SMEs, allowing them to redevelop their business and provide financial support, warehouse locations and even consultancy.
“When people want to start their own business, they need the halal certification and a permit. Since most of them conduct their businesses from their homes, we have discussed with the Department of Islam Selangor (JAIS) how they can help to endorse their certifications and permits.”
This programme would involve SMEs and other industry players for around two or three years to assist them in their development, such as providing the necessary facilities and financial support until they can stand on their own two feet. Additionally, their mobile application, HALALSEL, underwent some amendments.
The mobile application will be completed and launched by July.
“The motive is to publish halal restaurants within the app so customers can find halal food. The app also has features that restaurant owners can use to attract customers, such as discounts and promotional materials. We are excited about the launch,” said Syaril.
HIS also plans to match HALALSEL with some significant marketplaces and their halal segment by having clusters or tabs in the app to redirect customers with a button.
“We also plan to collaborate with other e-commerce platforms by proposing a segment of cluster tab where we can promote and share the halal businesses.”
HIS also plans to initiate and launch its Authorised Halal Operator (AHO), which will act as a one-stop centre that provides all the necessities for the industry players. Organisations and SMEs registered with AHO can get all their leads and approvals in one place. – @Halal
