Standard Chartered Saadiq partners with HDC to catalyse halal industry
KUCHING: A Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) has been signed between Standard Chartered Saadiq and Halal Development Corporation Bhd (HDC) enabling local halal businesses to expand beyond Malaysia.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent fluctuation in crude oil prices, the halal industry continues to show resilience due to its strong fundamentals. The crisis has brought on a renewed sense of demand for halal products as it is recognised as a hallmark of hygiene, product safety and reliability.
HDC chief executive officer
Hairol Ariffein Sahari revealed that in 2019, the total export value of Malaysian halal products stood at RM40.2 billion, a slight increase from RM40 billion compared to 2018. This is backed by higher demands from the Americas and the AsiaPacific region.
“The demand for halal products is not only seen in the Muslim-majority countries but is widespread across China, Japan, US, Europe, and the rest of the world. The various financing facilities in the Penjana economic recovery plan offers good relief measures for local businesses to sustain and improve their product offerings and service innovation.
“Product consolidation, cross-industry collaboration and an increased effort in marketing and promotion will be the catalyst of growth for the industry. We welcome the collaboration with Standard Chartered Saadiq as the Islamic Financing bank- of- choice, as an enabler to increase scale and global market penetration.”
Malaysia’s halal exporters registered a growth of 2.7 per cent in 2019, in tandem with the upsurge in global demand for halal- certified products. Equally important is the growing awareness of integrating Islamic financial services in the operations of halal businesses.
Standard Chartered Saadiq chief executive officer Mohd Suhaimi Abdul Hamid added, “We are pleased to be partnering with HDC in strengthening the ecosystem of the halal industry and reinforcing our commitment to provide end-to- end Shariah compliance in the operations of halal businesses.
“Our unparalleled network advantage spanning across Asia, Africa and Middle East provide clients access to new markets and allow us to be a key driver in facilitating business matching opportunities for local halal businesses in their global expansion.”
Standard Chartered’s Halal360 programme offers a comprehensive set of Shariahcompliant trade financing, liquidity management and working capital solutions for local and cross-border business requirements.
Financial incentives are accorded to halal SME businesses in the form of attractive foreign exchange rates on export proceeds, preferential pricing on current and savings accounts and lower rates on business instalment financing programmes.
HDC’s proprietary Halal Integrated Platform ( HIP), is expected to create synergies involving all stakeholders in the global halal market place on a single digital platform, with the focus on trade and e- commerce.
Complementing the digital journey and aspiration of the halal industry, is Standard Chartered Saadiq’s awardwinning Straight2Bank suite of electronic channels to enable clients to securely and effectively run their cash management, trade finance, foreign exchange and securities services.
Apart from HIP, HDC also offers its expertise in facilitating the onboarding of industry players onto the halal economy through Training, Consultancy and Business Matching services.