A 5-person delegation consisting of ministers, bureaucrats and businessmen from Selangor State, one of the important states of Malaysia in terms of industry and production, visited GIMDES headquarters. Dr. Hüseyin BÜYÜKÖZER, who started his speech by emphasizing that this visit was the 4th visit since 2016, welcomed GIMDES and emphasized his happiness for this visit and the importance of frequent meetings between the two brotherly communities.
Then the meetings started;
The meeting started with the topics that the brotherly ties between Malaysia and Türkiye have a strong foundation from the past to the present, and that strengthening these ties with joint cooperation and work will yield positive results for both countries. It was reminded that GIMDES had received 3 more visits from Selangor state in the past years. GIMDES President Dr. Büyüközer said, “Today, despite constituting one third of the world’s population, the 2 billion-strong Islamic world cannot live a life in accordance with their beliefs ‘due to the pressures of non-Muslim countries’. The world is governed by non-Muslims.
The palm oil produced in Malaysia is deliberately being propagated by the US and Europe to reduce its value by spreading false news that it is ‘harmful to health’. We need to announce this and similar anti-propaganda to people without fear.” He emphasized the importance of ensuring unity in Islamic countries by making Muslims aware of the work done by external powers.
Dr. Fahmi Ngah, a president of the Selangor Executive Councillor for Islamic Affairs and Innovation Culture, who is at the ministerial level in Malaysia, expressed his gratitude for giving them this opportunity to meet, and explained that with the new elections, the Selangor state president and the party leader are from the same party, which is why the decisions taken are put into practice faster. He said that the certification policies continue in the same way, however, the certification studies that used to take 60 days are now completed in 22 days if the company meets the necessary halal production conditions, and that this is an important opportunity for companies to export. He emphasized the importance of GIMDES for them since they accept products certified by GIMDES from Türkiye. He mentioned that with the new commercial developments in Malaysia, a similar example of the grand bazaar can be established in Malaysia for GIMDES Halal and Tayyib certified products.
Dr. Büyüközer stated that our brothers in Malaysia can consume GIMDES Halal and Tayyib certified products from Türkiye without thinking, but during our visits to Malaysia or in the products coming from Malaysia, products prohibited by GIMDES’ certification rules can sometimes be seen, so we cannot consume them with peace of mind. He stated that this problem stems from different standards, and we need to come together as soon as possible in our slogan that we have been trying to explain for 10 years, ‘One Voice, One Heart’, under a single Halal and Tayyip standard.
Malaysian Minister Dr. Fahmi said that he ensures synchronization between countries in issues such as trade in ready-to-eat products and raw material supply.
Dr. Büyüközer said, “If we look at our business only from a worldly perspective, those businesses are already running. 2 billion Muslims cannot practice Islam as they should due to electronic and technological systems. We need to work in this area. We work the technical board and the fiqh board together in our certification work.”
Dr. Fahmi stated that he completely agreed with the GIMDES president and said that traceability and quality are important and that they are working in this area. Later, the certified companies around GIMDES introduced themselves.
The officials of Ferzaym Gıda San. ve Tic Ltd. Şti., which produces flour improving additives, said that they had previously attended the MİHAS fair in Malaysia, that they foresaw business opportunities since the Malaysian food culture is rich in floury foods and that they could hold export meetings.
Mr. Selçuk Alkan, owner of Alkan Quality Gıda San. ve Tic Ltd. Şti., which produces snack products and baby food, said, “We have been producing GIMDES certified products for 15 years. We do not plan to produce any products without GIMDES certification. We would like to export the snack products we produce to Malaysia. In addition, we want to import non-hydrogenated and non-esterified coating palm oil from Malaysia.”
Mr. Ersin Taştan, owner of 7K Kimya İlaç Gıda San. Dış. Tic Ltd. Şti. (SPUMY), which produces oral care products, explained that they export to America and Singapore, are ready to export to Malaysia, and that they produce personal care products.
Our guests, who listened to our companies carefully, received the contact information of the companies and presented their own information. They stated that they would follow up on their requests and get back to them as soon as possible.
Finally, Dr. Fahmi asked what changes they wanted to see in their 4th visit to GIMDES. Our President said, “We want to see unity in the certification system. An important example of this is the World Halal Council. Since we have determined that WHC is the most appropriate umbrella organization for Islam, we, as GIMDES, are representing ourselves there. We need to give importance to unity and support unity wherever it exists. All people need peace. All people need peace. All people need peace.”
The delegation stated that they wanted to export to Türkiye and market products to other continents by taking advantage of Türkiye’s bridge position; conduct research to support young entrepreneurs in their countries and identify unexplored opportunities.
