World Halal Business and Food Expo Held in Jakarta

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The Food, Drug and Cosmetics Study Institute at the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) and PT Puteri Cahaya Kharisma (Performax) will hold a world halal summit and  halal business and food expo here on July 23-25, 2010.
  
"The events will be attended by representatives from Muslim countries. Most of them are engaged in food, beverage, banking, distribution, hypermart, and cosmetics industries," Performax President Director Risda Amarina said here on Friday.
   
As the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia played an important role in halal food and beverage industries to protect world Muslim customers. It also had the potential to serve as a source of world halal products and a destination of Muslim tourists, she said.
   
Indonesia was also open to international trade and therefore, it was very reasonable for the country to play an important role in applying a halal system, she said. According to her, the halal system applied not only to foods and beverages but also to businesses based on Islamic principles.
   
She said the halal system in Indonesia had covered the food  sector and the sharia banking industry as the business supporting sector. However, many business agents and people still had inadequate knowledge of halal concept in an integrated way.
   
"To familiarize the community with the concept, the institute, along with Performax under the sponsorship of the Trade Ministry, the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the Industry Ministry, and the Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) would organize the events," she said.