Govt to establish Halal Industrial Park: SBI

The National Industrial Parks Company Limited will develop this revolutionary industrial zone which will spread over a vast area near Ghaghar Phatak at National Highway towards Thatta, he informed media on the sideline of the Halal Conferencing and Business Matching-2011.here.

Motiwala said that the Halal Park would exclusively be meant for halal industries. Entire chain of facilities including Halal Certification would be provided there under one roof.

This certification facility would be manned by Sindh Board of Investment.

He said at first 200 acres of land would be developed. Then, it would be expanded to over a thousand of acres.

The Government has offered various incentives mainly the tax relief to attract the local and foreign investment, he said.

M. Zubair Motiwala, who is also a leading industrialist and exporter from Karachi, said that with halal certification our exports would significantly increase. He cited the example of 'Rooh- Afza' soft drink.

Its sale in USA multiplied to three times with its halal certification and use of halal logo.

He pointed out that there is huge global market of dollars 1.2 trillion of halal food and non-food products and if Pakistan succeeds in getting only its 5% share, our exports would increase manifold. Pakistan, having a rich agriculture base, has great potential for halal foods and other goods. Saudi Arabia could be our main importer of halal goods.

The global halal trade is approximately dollars 180 billion or 5% of total trade of agri-food products. This proves halal market is a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural market. It is estimated that in the future, halal food may account for 20 % of world trade in food products, he said.

The Chairman BOI regretted that first six leading halal goods exporting countries are all non-Muslims. These are USA, Russia, China, India, Thailand. USA enjoys the first position whereas Thailand the sixth.

"Pakistan with a big economic potential and having 95% Muslims of its total 180 million population should emerge the leader in Halal sector," he added.

He urged the Muslims to make their best efforts for promotion of halal food and non-food products for their spiritual satisfaction as Islam has strictly forbidden the intake or use of 'haram'.

He praised the role of Ambassdor of Royal Thai Embassy in Islamabad Marut Jitpatima for making today's halal conference a big success.

Jitpatima has brought a team of experts significantly contributing to halal industry of Thailand.

He noted that Thailand and Pakistan can be very good partners in developing halal industry.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011