The collaboration of the ITS Halal Study Center with the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia in fostering Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia

ITS Campus, ITS News – The Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) has again succeeded in achieving a proud achievement initiated by the Halal Product Assurance Organizing Agency (BPJPH) with the dashboard ranking of universities and Islamic community organizations (Ormas). Thanks to the hard work of each process, ITS succeeded in being ranked first in the Halal Product Assistance Institution for Legal Entity State Universities (PTN-BH).

Deputy Head of the ITS Halal Study Center, Nur Aini Rakhmawati, SKom MScEng Ph.D., explained that the assistance of halal certification facilities in the self-declare category is one of the efforts to accelerate economic recovery in post-pandemic Indonesia. This is in line with the government’s vision to encourage Indonesia to become a world producer of halal products.

Halal certification, which was initially voluntary, has now become mandatory or mandatory. The implementation of the halal certification is carried out in stages, starting with food and beverage products on October 17, 2019, and non-food products on October 17, 2021.

MSME assistance activities by ITS students in 2022 in the Surabaya City area

Furthermore, Nur explained that since May 2022, ITS has begun to pay attention to guaranteeing halal products with the establishment of the Halal Study Center (PKH) under the Directorate of Research and Community Service (DRPM). “Until now, ITS has produced 51 active companions and 98 assisted MSMEs,” he said.

By providing services in the form of training, mentoring business actors, journal management, Abmas grant collaboration, halal product testing, and feasibility studies, the ITS Halal Product Process (PPH) companion institution finally ranks first out of the top five PTN-BH, according to BPJPH data per year. September 26, 2022.

The Information Systems Department lecturer also revealed that in the mentoring process, there were challenges that PPH facilitators had to face. The companions must understand the rules, systems, and methods of halal and haram certification. “Not only that, assistants must be patient in helping MSME actors who are not yet technologically literate for the benefit of the production process,” he added.

ITS succeeded in achieving Rank I as a Halal Product Process Assistance Institution for PTN-BH in Indonesia

This ITS Informatics Engineering alumnus hopes that, by achieving the first rank for the PTN-BH, the ITS PPH team can further increase their enthusiasm and consistency in helping MSME actors. “Hopefully, in the future, business prospects for SME and MSME activists can be better with increased understanding of the halalness of a product,” he concluded. (ITS Public Relations)

 Reporter: Shauma Aulya Zahra