The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by Saudi Food & Drug Authority (SFDA), and Malaysia, represented by Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM), signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) in the field of mutual recognition of Halal Certificates for local products manufactured in both countries.

Saudi Arabia was represented, at the signing of the MOC, by H.E. CEO of Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA), Dr. Hisham bin Saad Aljadhey, while Malaysia was represented by Dr. Hakima Yusuf, Director General of the Islamic Development Department at the Malaysian Prime Minister's Office.

Fields of cooperation include mutual recognition of Halal certificates issued by both the SFDA’s Saudi Halal Center and Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) with regard to the local products exported between both countries, as well as the cooperation in conformity assessment procedures, standards, and technical measures and regulations for the issuance of Halal certificates, in addition to exchanging expertise and know-how in the fields of training, research and laboratory analysis of Halal products.

Al-Jadhey said “ Through this MOC, SFDA and JAKIM seek to unify the Halal standards, and raise the coordination level to benefit from the expertise between the both sides in the field of Sharia and technical researches, due to differences in Halal standards and the multiplicity of certificates with more than 400 certificates globally, which affect the credibility of Halal marks and stress the need for a global regulatory and legislative framework for Halal and joint work to develop the control in this field around the world”.

He stressed that SFDA, represented by Saudi Halal Center, has been working for several years to develop a cornerstone that contributes to establishing a unified system for Halal certification bodies in all countries of the world, as exemplified in the signing of MOC between the Saudi Arabia and Morocco in this field last October.”

“The indexes show that Islamic economy has promising opportunities, as number of Muslims represents almost quarter of world population, and the Islamic economy is growing significantly” he added.   

It is noteworthy that the Saudi Halal Center is one of the initiatives of the National Transformation Program, and the certificates granted by the Center contribute to facilitating import and export procedures. It also supports exporting the local products to compete in the global markets. Further, the Center works to grant Halal certificates to establishments and entities, cooperate in conducting specialized research to develop control over halal products, and to appoint external Halal certificate awarding bodies.