Indonesia, Saudi Arabia Forms Technical Team for Halal Product Assurance Cooperation

Jakarta, MINA- The Halal Product Assurance Organizing Body (BPJPH) of the Indonesian Ministry of Religion and the Saudi Food Drug Authority (SFDA) formed a technical team to deepen cooperation in the halal product assurance.

The cooperation was reached in a bilateral meeting between BPJPH and SFDA held as part of Mecca Halal Forum 2024 on Mecca City.

“BPJPH and SFDA reached an agreement to form technical team representing both parties to intensively coordinate to narrow down the scope of Halal Product Assurance cooperation between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia specifically,” said the chief of BPJPH Aqil Irham in a statement di Jakarta as quoted from Republika Online on Sunday.

Aqil hopes the form of technical team can accelerate increasing productivity in both countries through halal product sector.

“The follow-up synergy between BPJPH and SFDA will certainly have major positive implications for strengthening the halal ecosystem of each country, as well as strengthening the role of the halal product sector in increasing the economic value of both countries,” he said.

According to him, the synergy between the two institutions is also important in efforts to strengthen the role of the Indonesian halal sector in the dynamics of the global halal ecosystem which is increasingly competitive day by day.

In October 2023, the Governments of Indonesia and Saudi Arabia officially signed a memorandum of understanding regarding halal product assurance.

The signing of the memorandum was carried out by the Head of BPJPH M Aqil Irham and SFDA CEO Hisham S Aljadhey, witnessed by the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Muhammad bin Salman al-Saud at the Yamamah Palace in Riyadh, 19 October 2023.

The scope of the memorandum of understanding includes cooperation in developing conformity assessment procedures, standard specifications, and technical regulations for the issuance of halal certificates.

Apart from that, cooperation mutually recognizes and receives halal certificates for products exported between the two countries, cooperation exchanges experiences and knowledge in the field of training, research and laboratory analysis of halal products, and other cooperation agreed based on the memorandum of understanding. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)