VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Ministry of Industry continues to accelerate the development of halal industrial areas in the country. The halal industrial area is part or all parts of the industrial estate designed with systems and facilities to develop industries that produce halal products in accordance with the halal product guarantee system.

"There are four industrial estates that are included in the plan to develop halal industrial estates in Indonesia," said Director of the Directorate General of Resilience, Regional and Industrial Access (KPAII) Ministry of Industry Ignatius Warsito according to his statement received in Jakarta on Wednesday (6/12).

The four industrial areas are Batamindo Industrial Estate, Bintan Industrial Park, Jakarta Industrial Estate Pulogadung, and Modern Cikande Industrial Estate. The development of this area is one of the efforts to support the implementation of halal product certification on October 17, 2019.

"The four have submitted themselves to the Ministry of Industry to develop a halal industrial area. From them, the new Modern Cikande has been launched, "said Warsito.

The Ministry of Industry noted, Batamindo Industrial Park plans to develop a halal zone covering 17 hectares (ha) of a total area of ​​320 hectares, then Bintan Industrial Estate covering an area of ​​100 hectares from 320 hectares in total, and Modern Cikande covering 500 hectares.

Meanwhile, Pulogadung Jakarta Industrial Estate plans to develop halal zones for fashion, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, food centers, halal laboratories, and halal centers. Warsito is optimistic that there will be many companies interested in entering the halal industrial estate along with the increasing trend of using halal products.

"In fact, not only the industrial sector, in the region there will also be many supporting sectors. Ranging from halal certification offices to logistics transportation that is also halal. So, there will be a halal certification service that can have one stop service there, he has his laboratory, and his verification staff, "he explained.

Warsito added, in developing halal industrial estates, the Ministry of Industry has the duty to set standards, provide incentives, and facilitate promotion and technical cooperation. Later, these aspects are regulated in the Minister of Industry Regulation. Incentive aspects are also proposed in one-stop services to obtain halal certificates.

The criteria for halal industrial estates, among others, have management of halal industrial estates, owning or cooperating with laboratories for halal inspection and testing, clean water management systems in accordance with halal requirements, having a number of workers trained in halal product guarantees, and having boundaries halal industry.

Previously, the Minister of Industry Airlangga Hartarto stated, as a country with the largest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia needs to utilize the potential of halal industrial areas. This is in line with the large demand for halal products in both domestic and global communities.

"In 2019, the government targets the achievement of the halal industry to penetrate up to USD25 billion in world trade, or up 20 percent compared to three years ago," he said.

Airlangga also said, he hoped that business people operating in halal industrial areas could support efforts to increase exports of Indonesian halal products to a number of Middle Eastern countries.

"What we can do is convince foreign markets that the process of Indonesian halal products is good," he said. Related to the development of halal products, continued Airlangga, the Ministry of Industry also continued to update several things including regarding Bonded Logistics which had been launched by the government. "One of them is the export gateway for halal food products," he concluded. (kemenperin)