The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) together with the Islamic Chamber Halal Service (ICHS) and the Halal Product Guarantee Agency (BPJPH) held the inaugural kick off meeting at Menara Kadin Indonesia. This meeting is a follow-up to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) carried out at the opening of the "Makkah Halal Forum" event on 26 January 2024, to strengthen the halal industry globally, especially in Islamic countries or the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

In addition to discussing the importance of increasing awareness of three-party collaboration to improve halal products, this meeting was also used to increase the involvement of various Indonesian business actors through the creation of a database of companies in Indonesia and other ICHS member countries.

The Acting Chairman of Kadin Indonesia, Yukki Nugrahawan, said Indonesia has a great interest in playing an important role and utilising the economic potential of the global halal industry which continues to grow at a promising value. "This is a great opportunity for Indonesia to play an important role and utilise economic potential in order to realise the goal of becoming a global halal hub. This cooperation is Kadin Indonesia's commitment as a strategic partner of the government in increasing economic growth, in order to achieve Indonesia Emas 2045," he said.

Head of BPJPH Muhammad Aqil Irham stated that this collaboration is a strategic collaboration to build the Global Halal Industry. "This MoU with Kadin Indonesia and ICHS is a strategic collaboration to build a foundation for cooperation in supporting the Global Halal Industry, especially with OIC member countries," said Aqil.

Aqil added that BPJPH has transformed halal certification services, including strengthening halal certification services by expanding the distribution of LPH and LP3H, and preparing evenly distributed service human resources. "We are still working to strengthen human resources in the halal field by continuing to encourage training for Halal Auditors, PPH Assistants, Halal Supervisors, halal butchers, including through the 16 existing JPH Training Institutions," Aqil explained.

As a country with the largest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia has great potential in realising the halal industry. According to BPJPH records, until 24 October 2023 there will be at least 3.9 million halal-certified products.

Given the Indonesian government's target to get out of the middle income trap, collaboration and cooperation agreements need to be carried out. Kadin Indonesia believes that this MoU with BPJPH and ICHS can pave the way for businesses to more easily improve the quality of their industry.

ICHS CEO, Ashraf El Tanbouly also welcomed the memorandum of understanding and follow-up Kick-Off Meeting between ICHS, Kadin Indonesia, and BPJPH, as very strategic partners. "We see collaboration with Kadin Indonesia and BPJPH in a strategic partnership to encourage efforts to build the Global Halal Industry, where Indonesia is one of the important global players," said Ashraf.

It is hoped that through this collaboration economic growth can be achieved. Through these efforts Indonesia is also expected to become the 4th largest economy in the world based on purchasing power parity (PPP) gross domestic product (GDP) by 2045.