Indonesia cen bank to propose nat’l policy package to develop halal industry - official

Photo: An aisle in Carrefour supermarket in Jakarta, Indonesia on May 8, 2017. 1000 Words/Shutterstock.com

JAKARTA – Indonesia’s central bank, as a member of the newly-established National Committee for Islamic Finance (KNKS), will propose a comprehensive national policy package to develop the halal industry from the bottom up instead of top down to boost both the downstream and upstream sectors, Anwar Basori, head of the Islamic finance and economy department at Bank Indonesia, told Salaam Gateway.

“We want a portion of the national state budget to be allocated to halal industry development. We will prepare it for the next national medium-term development plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024,” he said.

Basori believes Indonesia’s requirement for the use of local materials and content (Tingkat Kandungan Dalam Negeri, TKDN), introduced in 2009 and phased in gradually for various industries, will spur development of the halal supply chain as the nation works towards 2019 when all halal products must be certified and labeled as such.