KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has emerged as the number one nation that best supports the multi-trillion dollar global Islamic economy, revealed DinarStandard in its State of the Global Islamic Economy (SGIE) Report 2022.
The report offers a comprehensive look into the best-performing countries to address the growing Islamic economy opportunity.
The report said Malaysia continued to remain in the top spot in the overall rankings for the ninth consecutive year.
It is followed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Indonesia.
The report's Global Islamic Economy Indicator (GIEI) Score ranks Malaysia in the top spot in four out of six sectors namely Muslim-friendly travel, Islamic finance, halal food as well as media and recreation.
Besides that, Malaysia is placed second and ninth in the pharma and cosmetics and modest fashion respectively.
In terms of Muslim-friendly travel, Malaysia is included in the top five Muslim travel destination countries, alongside Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran.
"Malaysia's strengths in this area were attributed to ease of travel and public awareness.
"In the report, Malaysia topped two of the five government benchmark dimensions, specifically in governance that focuses on travel rules and regulations, and awareness, referring to media coverage and stakeholder training," it said.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said Malaysia was on the right track in preparing the tourism industry players for the burgeoning Muslim tourist market.
"During the pandemic, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, through its agency Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC), has ramped up efforts to train and upskill tourism industry stakeholders to understand and cater to this market with its unique faith-based needs.
"ITC has supported the industry by developing standards and guidelines to strengthen the Muslim tourism and hospitality service delivery.
"Islamic tourism ecosystem and the Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality branding are the way forward as we safely reopen Malaysia's borders to new and returning visitors," she said.