The Need for Legislation and Governance Enhancement of Halal Hub Ports for Sustainable Economic Growth

Malaysia located at the centre of Halal Silk Route would benefit immensely from the halal maritime ports and business industry with better governance and management. The significance of the strategic location added with the recognition of Malaysian Halal certification throughout the Islamic world should attribute to the country’s revenue. But Malaysian ports was reportedly lacking in Halal standards with ambiguous guidelines, lack of cooperation among stakeholders and others. Thus, the question that arises is, is Malaysia ready to offer its Halal supply chain services and reliability to the maritime industry? Many non-Islamic countries have already offered the halal ports services and excel. Thus Malaysia needs to upgrade its game to strengthen its halal centre of Islamic economic trade. The situation calls for a review of the overall policies and governance that exists in Malaysian especially of ports playing a significant role in the halal supply chain network. This qualitative study is exploratory in nature with analyses existing documents on Malaysian halal ports’ legal documents and governance. Early results provided findings existing governance consists of vacuums in general legal documents and halal hub governance. This paper promotes appropriate halal policies and strategies relevant to halal hub agencies, stakeholders, and local communities to ensure sustainable economic income and the environment from the halal hub ports. This study is in line Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) and other local Halal Industry Master Plan 2030, National Priority Areas (NPAs) – Transportation & Mobility; and National Key Economic Area (NKEA).