Developing Vietnam's Halal Industry: New Direction for Economic Diplomacy

Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Hieu visited the booth displaying products at the Conference "Promoting international cooperation to develop Vietnam's Halal industry", June 2022. (Photo: Nguyen Hong)

Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Hieu recently discussed the implementation of the project on promoting international cooperation to develop Vietnam's Halal industry until 2030, approved by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Recently, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh issued a Decision approving the project to strengthen international cooperation to develop Vietnam's Halal industry until 2030. How do you evaluate the meaning and importance of this Decision to the economic development of Vietnam today?

On February 14, the Prime Minister issued a Decision approving the project "Promoting international cooperation to develop Vietnam's Halal industry until 2030." The project has been developed over the past two years and received great attention from the Government, ministries, branches, localities and businesses.

This is the first project that sets out major and national orientations on mobilizing international resources to build and develop Vietnam's Halal industry. It helps Vietnamese enterprises to effectively participate in the global Halal product supply and production chains.

The project creates a new direction in implementing economic diplomacy for development, helping to open a potential Halal market with a scale of up to US$10 trillion worldwide by 2028.

It also creates a new impetus for the sustainable economic development of our country, especially when traditional markets are facing difficulties due to inflation and economic recession.

In that context, diversifying export markets and opening new markets is considered the golden key to boosting Vietnam's exports and contributing to the country's economic development. The global Halal market has huge potential in terms of size and population growth, as well as its growth prospects in the future.

The implementation of the project also contributes to deepening Vietnam's relations with important Halal product consuming countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia. That contributes to enhancing the role and position of Vietnam and Vietnamese enterprises on the global Halal map.

Many people think that the potential of the global Halal market is still large. What is your opinion on new opportunities for Vietnamese businesses when participating in the global Halal market?

For Vietnam, the potential and opportunities of the global Halal market are still large, reflected in the following aspects:

The global Halal market has a large scale with about 1.94 billion people in 2022, accounting for nearly a quarter of the world's population and is on the rise.

The size of the global Halal economy reached US$7 trillion in 2022 and is expected to increase to about US$10 trillion by 2028. Halal product consumption market is widely distributed around the world, from Muslim countries to non-Muslims.

The level of consumption and use of Halal products tends to increase, expanding to non-Muslim markets as Halal products meet many criteria on food safety, quality and environmental protection.

Many countries that are major Muslim consumer markets or exporters of Halal products in the world (such as Korea, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia) have expressed their interest and desire to promote cooperation with Vietnam in investment, develop the Halal industry in Vietnam to serve domestic consumption and export.

Vietnam has favorable conditions for the development of the Halal industry such as favorable geographical position, strengths in agriculture, food, tourism and services; extensive and comprehensive international economic integration when participating in many leading economic links in the region, including new-generation free trade agreements.

The opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to participate in the global Halal market are huge, including diversifying import and export markets, developing tourism, and opening up the export of Vietnamese products such as food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics.

Vietnam has the opportunity to attract capital and financial investment of international and regional corporations into Vietnam. It contributes to helping Vietnamese businesses and localities improve their capacity, competitiveness, quality of human resources and promote technology transfer, especially the technology of production, processing, preservation and transportation meeting Halal standards.

Speakers at the Conference "Promoting international cooperation to develop Vietnam's Halal industry", June 2022. (Photo: Nguyen Hong)

How does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the focal point in the implementation of the project, plan to carry out the project in 2023 to mobilize international resources to develop the Halal industry in Vietnam?

From its construction to its approval, the project has received great attention and high expectations from the Government, ministries, departments, branches, localities and businesses.

According to the Decision approving the project issued by the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is assigned to act as the focal point, assume the prime responsibility, and coordinate with ministries, departments, branches, localities and enterprises in the implementation process.

The project has been implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately after being approved by the Prime Minister.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been implementing the following main tasks:

The Ministry develops an action plan to implement the project in 2023, which focuses on large groups of solutions such as integrating the development of Vietnam's Halal industry in bilateral cooperation with partners; promoting the signing of agreements to create a legal framework to strengthen international cooperation on Halal; strengthening research and providing information related to Halal, especially on trade policy, Islamic culture, Halal certification; fostering trade promotion and investment in Halal products and services.

The Ministry raises awareness of people, businesses and localities about Halal basic information such as concepts, standards, certifications, development trends of the Halal market and culture, doing business with Muslims .

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports, encourages businesses and localities to produce products and services that meet Halal standards, to participate effectively in the global Halal market, promote products and services meeting Vietnam's Halal standards on the global map.

The Ministry also guides provinces and cities in developing action plans and implementing the project in 2023.

These include raising awareness of the Halal industry, Islamic culture for residents, businesses and locals; promoting the Vietnam Halal products and services to the global market; develop appropriate management mechanism, perfecting the legal corridor in Halal certification, management and development.

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