Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung (ANTARA) - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin is sanguine about the halal tourism sector in Indonesia recovering and reinvigorating following a decline in cases of COVID-19.
"Residents and their families will travel again to visit halal tourism attractions after not having visited for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic," the vice president stated in his opening remarks for the International Halal Congress here on Tuesday evening.
As Indonesia must optimise available opportunities to bolster tourism recovery, he cautioned that vigilance against an uptick in COVID-19 cases remains necessary.
"COVID-19 health protocols must be enhanced, particularly after two more variants of the coronavirus were detected," Amin noted.
The vice president clarified that halal tourism is an effort to provide halal services, such as praying rooms and halal restaurants, to complement tourism attractions instead of modifying tourism spots to make them Muslim-compliant.
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"There are some misconceptions that halal tourism means to Islamicise the tourism (attractions)," he noted.
Amin then expressed hope that the halal congress would step up efforts to make Indonesia as a global halal centre.
The vice president believes that to enable Indonesia to become a global halal centre, meetings were organised to discuss the matter with government ministries.
The government has also mapped out and developed the national halal industry through economic and Islamic finance committees in regions, he remarked.
Earlier, Amin stated that Indonesia has the strength and opportunity to be the best halal production centre in the world.
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“Observing the prospects of economic growth in Indonesia in a global condition that must be anticipated, I underline some strengths to realize Indonesia’s vision as the world’s best halal production centre,” he stated on Tuesday (Apr 14).
According to the vice president, the first strength is the national sharia economy and finance that were proven to have supported Indonesia during the pandemic and even to have inclusively involved all communities through empowerment efforts.
The second opportunity is the high demand for halal products, while the third opportunity is to synergise the sharia finance sector to develop the halal product industry sector by providing support through financing, he added.
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