Heaptalk, Jakarta — The Indonesian Government is aggressively developing the Bintan Inti Halal Hub area in the Riau Islands into a halal industrial area. This is one of the government’s measures for making Indonesia a center for the world’s leading halal producers.
According to Vice President Ma’ruf Amin, one of the keys to developing the halal industrial area is building a strong halal value chain ecosystem from upstream to downstream. This ecosystem will not only boost exports of halal products but also make Indonesia a major player in the global halal value chain. Apart from multi-party support, strategic steps are needed to complete this ecosystem.
First, enhancing the halal value chain ecosystem infrastructure is needed to increase the competitiveness and productivity of the halal industry. “The effectiveness of the halal certification business process must continually be improved, including strengthening the upstream sector, namely the certification of halal slaughterhouses and butchers. Various fiscal and non-fiscal incentives can be provided to increase the participation of halal value chain actors,” said Ma’ruf Amin when opening the Riau Islands Ramadan Fair (Kurma) 2024 and the Go Global Halal Products Seminar at the Riau Islands Province Regional Building sometime ago.
Sharia business curation, incubation, and mentoring programs must also constantly be optimized, by involving communities, including mosques and Islamic boarding schools. He voiced, “The mentoring commitment should ideally be carried out until MSMEs succeed in exporting halal products to the global market.”
Exploring the superior potential of marine products
The second step of building a halal industrial area includes innovation and research collaboration as well as the use of technology in building up an inclusive, ethical, and sustainable halal value chain ecosystem. According to Ma’ruf Amin, innovation in applying digital technology, such as in the halal traceability process, can accelerate the development of the halal value chain ecosystem.
In the third step, the Vice President specifically asked the Regional Government and the people of the Riau Islands to continue exploring the superior potential of the region and increase the added value of the local halal product industry. “With more than 97% sea area, Riau Islands is rich in marine products and has great potential in developing a blue economy. For this reason, the halal value chain ecosystem in this sector should continue to be developed,” he uttered.
Further, he hopes that many halal products from the Riau Islands Province’s fisheries and marine sector will go global. Besides, regional economic transformation can also be pushed in a more inclusive and sustainable direction.
Obtaining the Best Halal Program Award
On the occasion, the Governor of the Riau Islands Ansar Ahmad said that thus far the Riau Islands have developed a Sharia financial ecosystem through the Halal Center program located at STAIN Abdurahman and Batam Polytechnic. This program includes halal certification which has resulted in 10,845 halal certificates, mentoring, training, product curation, and expanding the market share of halal products.
Currently, the Province is also a domestic and global producer of halal products which in the 2022–2023 period has contributed exports of approximately Rp120 billion through the Bintan Industrial Estate as the Bintan Core Halal Hub Area. “Through the support of the Riau Islands halal industry program since 2021, for three consecutive years, (Riau Islands) have succeeded in obtaining the Indonesia Halal Industry Awards (IHYA) as the province with the Best Halal Program,” concluded Ansar.
