News From : DagangHalal.com (22 Oct 2009)
DAVAO CITY (PNA) – The local government of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is eyeing to create a special body aimed at improving the halal production in the region. In his recent visit here, lawyer Manguib Sinarunto, special assistant to the regional secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) of ARMM said they are planning to create an Economic Development Agency in the region, which will be tasked to do business especially in halal production.
“It should be a corporate body created by the government to focus mainly on halal food production,” he said. He admitted that although ARMM is already a halal certifying body, the industry still lurk behind due to production lack. “We will end up certifying halal products from other regions because we don’t have enough production,” he said. He blamed the poor halal food production in ARMM to lack of infrastructure.
He said the agency will only be created through a law. Draft of the plan including the passage of a law creating the agency is now at the level of the ARMM government, he said. Although the ARMM government wants the private sector to act as key players in the planned agency, Sinarunto admitted, the private sector seemed lukewarm due to the region’s peace and order problem.