Malaysia today signed a deal with a China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to certify and market traditional Chinese Muslim medicine to the world's Muslim consumer market.

Under the deal, Malaysia's Halal Development Corporation (HDC) will certify as Halal traditional Chinese Muslim medicine manufactured by Ningxia's 2.1 million Muslim population, and help with its promotion.

Ningxia's vice governor, Liu Zhong, said the deal would enable the region's centuries-old traditional Chinese Muslim medicine practices and remedies to be marketed to both Muslims and non-Muslims world-wide.

"This signals a first and an altogether new level of cooperation between China and other Islamic countries in the world. Only after Halal certification can our products ... be sold worldwide," Liu told reporters.

Ningxia in northwest China is one of the few places where many Chinese Muslims live in communities. Muslims account for one third of its population of 6.0 million.

Malaysia is trying to position itself as a global hub for the Halal industry, and lays claim to being the only country where Halal certification is carried out by a government agency.

Best standards

The HDC's chief executive, Jamal Bidin, said the deal would give the country a leg into China's Muslim market.

"Malaysia's Halal standards are the best in the world and it is on high demand," said Jamal.

"China itself is a huge market. They have a lot of resources such as food products and others. They also have a very big domestic consumption with some 50 to 60 million Muslims here," he said.

Jamal said the world Halal market, including food and non-food products, is worth an estimated 2.1 trillion dollars and is expected to grow by 15 percent every year.

Under the concept of Halal - meaning "permissible" in Arabic - pork and its by-products, alcohol and animals not slaughtered according to Koranic procedures are all "haram" or forbidden.

Applying Halal standards also includes products such as cosmetics, which may contain animal-derived ingredients, and the conditions under which products are prepared and stored.