KUALA LUMPUR, 2nd December 2020 - Malaysia placed
number one in four, out of six sectors in the State of the Global Islamic
Economy (SGIE) Report 2020/21 announced by DinarStandard recently.
YB. Dato' Sri Hajah Nancy Shukri, Minister of
Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) said, the Report's Global Islamic Economy
Indicator (GIEI) ranking scored Malaysia as the top ranked country in
Muslim-friendly Travel, Halal Food, Islamic Finance and Pharmaceutical &
Cosmetics sectors. Malaysia ranked second and fourth respectively in the Media
& Recreation and Modest Fashion sectors.
"In realizing of huge potential of Islamic
Tourism under the concept of Muslim Friendly Travel (MFT), Malaysia through
MOTAC and its agency ITC will continue to increase its effort to gain more
market shares through infrastructure and facilities, training, capacity
building, and standards & certification and promotion by the tourism
promotion boards", she added.
In Muslim-friendly Travel, the Malaysian
Government ranked highest in two out of four benchmark dimensions, namely in
Governance which refers to regulations related to the tourism industry, and
awareness in terms of media coverage and report. ITC offered a series of free online
Muslim-friendly tourism related training sessions during the crisis, covering
topics such as Halal certification, the needs of the Muslim travellers and
Islamic branding and marketing.
In the other two dimensions, Malaysia was placed
second in Financial support for inbound tourism spend and third in the Social
dimension which refers to the sector's impact on employment.
In the Muslim-friendly Travel sector, 200.3
million Muslim travellers contributed USD194 billion in travel spend in 2019,
attesting to its enormous potential. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has
crippled growth in this sector which is only expected to recover to
pre-pandemic levels by 2023.
Despite the severe environment, the SGIE Report
found that investors are still looking at long-term growth, especially in the
travel technology area. Tourism establishments seeking a share of the
multi-trillion dollar market opportunity in the Islamic economy, have also
applied Muslim-friendly tourism guidelines in anticipation of borders reopening
and the eventual rebound of the travel and tourism sector. SGIE Report was
about Muslim-friendly Accommodation Recognition (MFAR) programme introduced by
ITC in 2019 that mushroomed in applications in 2020.
The SGIE offers a comprehensive picture of countries
that are currently best positioned to address the multi-trillion dollar global
halal economy opportunity. A total of 81 countries comprising OIC countries and
non-OIC countries with a prominent halal industry presence were covered in the
SGIE Report.
The 2020/21 SGIE Report estimates that Muslims
spend USD2.02 trillion in 2019 on food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, modest
fashion, media and travel. The spending reflects 3.2 per cent year-on-year
growth, Muslim spends in 2020 are forecast by 8 per cent due to the impact of
the pandemic.
However, the spending excludes travel is forecast
to rebound by the end of 2021 and is slated to reach USD3.3 trillion by 2024,
at a cumulative annual growth rate of
3.1 per cent. Islamic finance assets are estimated
to have reached USD2.88 trillion in 2019 and are estimated to remain at the
same level in 2020.
The 2020/21 Report has produced in partnership
with SalaamGateway.com, the largest Islamic economy news and media platform.
Global strategic partners of the SGIE Report this year include CIMB Islamic
bank.
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