Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has made specific proposals regarding Halal cooperation during high-level meetings, including with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during his visit to Vietnam on July 20, 2023.

From a national-scale perspective

On February 14, 2023, the Prime Minister issued Decision approving the project on “strengthening international cooperation to build and develop Halal industry in Vietnam until 2030”.

This pioneering project sets a national-level direction to mobilize international resources for the systematic, professional, and comprehensive development of the Vietnam’s Halal industry. It aims to enable Vietnamese enterprises to deeply and effectively participate in the Halal global production and supply chain.

Moreover, the project creates a new direction in economic diplomacy to support development, opening up potential Halal markets with a projected scale up to 10 trillion USD worldwide by 2028. This initiative also aims to provide new impetus for Vietnam's sustainable economic development.

Clearly, amidst current global economic challenges, diversifying export markets and opening new markets are considered as key strategies to enhance Vietnam's export activities and positively contribute to sustainable economic development.

Furthermore, the project contributes to strengthening and deepening Vietnam's relationships with important Halal consumer countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), thereby enhancing Vietnam's role and Vietnamese enterprises' position on the global Halal map.

To favourable conditions

What are opportunities of Vietnam in the global Halal market? The following perspectives contribute to answering this question:

Firstly, the global Halal market is vast, with nearly 2 billion people in 2023, constituting nearly a quarter of the world's population and showing increasing trends.

The global Halal economic scale reached over 7 trillion USD in 2023 and is expected to increase to about 10 trillion USD by 2028. Halal product consumption markets are widely distributed worldwide, from Muslim to non-Muslim countries.

In this "favourable time", other factors such as "favourable condition” and “harmonious people" should be noted. Currently, many countries that are major Muslim consumer or Halal product exporters (such as Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia) are interested in and desire to promote cooperation with Vietnam in investment and development of the Halal industry in Vietnam, serving both domestic consumption and exports.

Meanwhile, Vietnam possesses favorable conditions for developing the Halal industry, such as advantageous geographical location, strengths in agriculture, food, tourism, and services; comprehensive integration into the global economy through participation in various leading economic partnerships in the region, including new-generation free trade agreements.

The Vietnamese Government is also keen on opening and supporting Vietnamese enterprises to effectively participate in the global Halal market.

Therefore, it can be affirmed that the opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises in the global Halal market are significant, not only in diversifying export markets and developing tourism but also in exporting Vietnam's strengths in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and attracting international and regional investment into Vietnam.

Furthermore, Vietnamese businesses and localities have the opportunity to enhance their capabilities, competitiveness, quality of human resources and promote technology transfer, especially in Halal standards for production, processing, preservation, and transportation.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Hang chaired a conference on enhancing international cooperation to build and develop the Halal industry in Vietnam in November 2023.

And sustained implementation efforts

Efforts of promoting Halal has been consistently implemented from high-level leadership to Vietnamese Government ministries, departments, enterprises, and localities in recent times.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh discussed specific proposals related to Halal cooperation during high-level meetings with potential Halal partners. On July 20, 2023, during talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in Vietnam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed Vietnam's readiness to provide stable and long-term rice sources to Malaysia, while requesting Malaysia's support for Vietnam's Halal industry development and early signing of cooperation agreements in this field.

On the visit to Saudi Arabia in October 2023, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had direct discussions with Saudi Arabia's leaders and businesses about cooperation opportunities in the Halal industry, looking forward to Vietnamese agricultural products to be more present in Saudi Arabia's supermarket system.

During the plenary session on economic diplomacy to serve national development held within the framework of the 32nd Diplomatic Conference at the end of 2023, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also emphasized the importance of developing Halal industry development.

The global Halal market has a significant scale, comprising nearly 2 billion people, which accounts for nearly a quarter of the world's population and it continues to show increasing trends. (Source: Orissa International)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the focal agency, presiding and coordinating with ministries, departments, branches, localities and businesses in the process of implementing the Halal industry development project. Therefore, in recent times, promoting the pioneering role of foreign affairs in mobilizing external resources to serve development, the Project has been actively and synchronously implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In November 2023, for the first time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinated with the Ministries of Science and Technology, Industry and Trade, Agriculture and Rural Development and related agencies to organize an Economic Diplomacy Conference with Vietnamese representative agencies abroad using both face-to-face and online forms to jointly review, discuss and propose measures to effectively implement the Halal industry development project, contributing to diversification of export market and help Vietnamese products penetrate the global Halal market.

In numerous meetings related to project implementation, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Hang has consistently emphasized key tasks in enhancing international cooperation for developing Vietnam's Halal industry, affirming that with the spirit of economic diplomacy serving development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will actively coordinate closely with ministries, departments, relevant agencies, and localities to support and accompany associations and enterprises in developing Vietnam's Halal industry.

It can be affirmed that proactive and active implementation of the project and synchronized involvement of ministries, departments, sectors, and relevant agencies have contributed to building Vietnam's Halal industry increasingly systematic, comprehensive, and robust in the coming time, enhancing internal capacity and creating new growth momentum for comprehensive and sustainable economic development, deepening substantive and effective cooperation between Vietnam and its partners.

After more than a year of project implementation, Vietnam's journey in developing the Halal industry has achieved certain successes. Notably, Halal has become a focal point of cooperation between Vietnam and Muslim countries such as Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia... On August 9, 2023, the General Department of Standards and Quality signed an MOU with Iran's National Standards Organization (INSO), marking Vietnam's first agreement with a foreign partner in the Halal sector.

Clearly, the “Vietnam’s Halal ship” has smoothly sailed and is sure to advance steadily with firm achievements ahead.