April 16, 2014: The recently announced Halal Zones in Jafza and TechnoPark, highlighted during Jafza Business Seminar held last week at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, in Malaysia, have aroused strong business interest among Malaysian investors for Jafza facilities at the Free Zone, which is regarded as the gateway to serve the entire Middle East region.
The Forum was attended by 60 leading manufacturers and exporters mainly from food, healthcare, beauty, technology, and oil and gas sectors besides the top UAE and Malaysian dignitaries including HE Eiman Ahmed Al Hashemi, Head of Consul Affairs Department, UAE Embassy in Malaysia, HE Dato Sri Mir Khan, Executive Chairman, Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Dato Dzulkifli, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade).
The Jafza Business Seminar and Roadshow in Malaysia was led by Ibrahim Mohamed Al Janahi, Deputy CEO and Chief Commercial Officer, Adil Al Zarooni, Senior Vice President, Khalid Al Marzooqi, Senior Manager – Asia Pacific, Abdulaziz Redha, Assistant Manager – Jafza Sales and Mania Merrikhi, Project Manager, Marketing.
Ibrahim Al Janahi speaking at the business seminar said:
“Rapidly increasing demand for halal products in the Middle East, in particular, and globally, in general, has made Halal one of the most important sectors in the global economy. Global Halal Products market is currently valued at USD 2.3 trillion, which accounts for more than 20% of total food market of the world. Trade in Halal products will continue to grow at more than 4.8 per cent annually to reach about 6.4 trillion in 2020. The sector, therefore, provides huge opportunities for global investors. EZW initiative to develop a state-of-the-art Halal Zone in Jafza to serve international markets and another Halal Zone in TechnoPark to serve the local and regional markets, seeks to address upcoming market demands. We, through our seminar and roadshow, invite Malaysian investors to take advantage of the market opportunities in the sector.”
He also talked about the UAE’s recent 2020 World Expo bid win to host 2020 World Expo in Dubai and the event’s massive impact on the economic activities in Dubai and the region.
Adil Al Zarooni made a presentation at the seminar on EZW roadmap to develop Halal Zones as all-inclusive hubs, supported with world-class infrastructure, perfectly suited to attract leading enterprises in the entire gamut of halal industry.
Speaking about the EZW Halal Zones Al Zarooni said:
“Halal Zones will integrate a one-stop-shop system to service each and every need of customers in the halal supply chain, offering ease of doing business. We seek to collaborate and attract organisations, associations, accreditation bodies, R&D, as well as advisory firms to support the entire halal value chain right from R&D, product development to sourcing, production, logistics, sales and marketing.
“We also plan to promote the Halal Standards globally, being developed by Emirates Authority for Standardization & Metrology and Dubai Accreditation Department, to attract enterprises within the Halal industry from across the world.”
EZW has allocated infrastructure-ready plots of land for Halal Zones in Jafza and TechnoPark. Jafza Halal Zone will be built on an area of over 850,000 square metres while TechnoPark Halal Zone will be spread over a plot of over 700,000 square metres.
Multi-phased EZW Halal Zone Development Plan will also identify laws, regulations, and licencing needs of the Zone and draft laws and regulations accordingly. It will also setup the internal processes and systems to automate different processes. The Halal Zones are expected to be fully operational in the next two years.
Khalid Al Marzooqi, Senior Manager – Asia Pacific in his presentation highlighted Jafza’s key value propositions and the Free Zone’s status as the trade and logistics hub for the Middle East and Africa. He also highlighted huge opportunities for Malaysian companies in the region, which they can take advantage of, from the Free Zone. He also talked about “matajircom”, the world’s first purpose-built smart retail hub, being developed at the TechnoPark.
Dato Dzulkifli, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Matrade, Malaysia speaking at the seminar advised Malaysian investors, both large multi-nationals as well as SME’s, to use Jafza’s excellent infrastructure and facilities to capitalize on the growing opportunities in the region, which Jafza as a hub serves.
He said:
“UAE is at present Malaysia’s second largest export destination in the region. We must take advantage of Halal Zone facility and offerings in Jafza to evolve into the region’s leading player in Halal products.”
During the roadshow Jafza team met several prominent companies in food, oil and gas, electronics and other industrial sectors, who have shown their interest in being in Jafza to serve the growing Middle East markets in their respective sectors.
Most of the countries in the Middle East region are investing heavily on building economic infrastructure to enable them to diversify their economies from oil to non-oil sectors. This has impacted in shoring up demand in all other economic sectors spanning from food, building material, textiles, to petrochemicals and automotive, which are Malaysia’s stronger export sectors.
Jafza has also participated in Halal World Conference where Adil Al Zarooni gave a presentation on EZW Halal Zones and spoke about food security solutions through Halal Trade.
Jafza had a stand at the Malaysia International Halal 2014 Showcase (MIHAS), which is one of the leading industry events on Halal products in the world.
During MIHAS Jafza officials met several top government officials including HE Dato Haji Abdul Malik Kassim, State Minister for Domestic Trade and Chairman Penang International Halal Hub, HE Dato Sri Mustapa Mohammed, Minister for International Trade and Industry and HRH Prince Sulaiman Shah, Chairman, Malaysia-UAE Business Council, to discuss various opportunities to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two sides. They also met the Executive Chairman of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, which is the world’s 2nd largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations.
Jafza is currently home to 16 Malaysian multi-nationals. The UAE-Malaysia trade is estimated to have crossed USD 8 billion in 2013 while non-oil trade between Jafza and Malaysia during the same period is estimated to have crossed USD 5 billion.
