Indonesia to host international halal lifestyle conference

Bank Indonesia (BI) will organize the International Halal Lifestyle Conference and Business Forum to help unlock Indonesia’s potential in the global halal industry chain. BI’s sharia finance director Anwar Bashori said in Jakarta on Monday that BI would team up with the Halal Lifestyle Center in the conference at the Jakarta Convention Center from Oct. 3 to 5.

The Jakarta Post reported that there was a great market for halal products given the increasing trend in global markets and Indonesia could become a major producer country of halal products in addition to the need to supply 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 press conference.

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

Meanwhile, Halal Lifestyle Center chief Sapta Nirwandar said Indonesia needed to do many things to boost the halal food industry, including creating a supportive halal industry ecosystem, drafting regulation, effective promotion and ensuring close coordination among the relevant sectors.

“We don’t have a regulation to establish a halal ecosystem. Each sector works separately. What we want to address is how to connect halal tourism to halal food and maybe also halal hotels,” he told journalists. (The Jakarta Post)