The National Commission for Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) has proposed for the creation of “Lake Lanao Special Economic Zone” to develop a halal ecosystem in the country to improve the country's participation in the huge export potential for Halal products.
This was proposed raised by Engineer Rahmatol Mamukid, Director IV from Bureau of Muslim Economic Affairs of the NCMF at the recent “Global Halal Excellence: Upskilling, Reskilling, and Converging Halal Capability Building” organized by the Philippine Trade Training Center – Global MSME Academy (PTTC-GMEA), which gained support from embassies with dominant Muslim population.
Mamukid discussed the development of Lanao and Marawi City as HALAL Tourism Special Economic Zones in collaboration with existing hotels and beach resorts in Lanao and Marawi. The proposed ecozone should become a hub for Halal-certified projects.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual called the halal food as a sunrise industry with great potential to contribute to the goal of economic growth and expansion. “We consider the growing Muslim population as a strong demand driver of the global Halal economy. Estimated at 1.9 billion in 2020, Muslims reflect 25 percent of the world’s population and projected to grow up to 2 billion by 2030,” Pascual said.
The PTTC-GMEA seeks to learn processes, systems, best practices, among others to upskill, reskill, and converge Halal advocates. The Philippine Trade Training Center-Global MSME Academy is also playing a significant role in the development of the halal industry. PTTC offers a comprehensive and systematic skills-building approach for halal MSMEs through its Enterprise Development Track, which includes a specific halal training program for every MSME. PTTC has developed various training brands to address the needs of MSMEs, such as startups, gender and development, and finance and marketing.
Meantime, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) also offers opportunities for halal investments to create more jobs. He said that as part of strategic investments, Halal projects would be entitled to “Green Lanes” processing.
Representatives from the embassies of Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, and Turkey also expressed support for the country’s push for Halal industry.
In their messages, Malaysian Ambassador H.E. Dato’ Abdul Malik Melvin Castelino bin Anthony and Turkey’s Third Secretary Zeki Furkan Kucuk expressed their support for the program and PTTC-GMEA’s vision of creating the Philippine Halal Ecosystem.
“Malaysia stands ready to support, assist, and share experiences that we have with the Philippines and I’m glad to say that with the visit of the Prime Minister of Malaysia and with the meeting with President Bongbong Marcos, a lot of decisions were made and one of it is to promote trade investment which is led by Secretary Pascual, our focus will always be on the Halal industry,” Castelino said.
For his part, Kucuk noted that Turkey “appreciates the efforts of Philippine agencies, especially the Philippine Trade Training Center - Global MSME Academy to establish a halal ecosystem in the Philippines. In this respect, we are really interested in collaboration and cooperation with the Philippines in the near future in this field.”