INDUSTRY NEEDS SKIN IN THE GAME

For industry, this shared responsibility is also commercial. Companies reasonably evaluate cost, risk and return, and greater contribution is not a demand for charity. If halal assurance creates market access, consumer confidence, risk management and brand value, then investment in the enabling ecosystem is a legitimate business responsibility.

It is difficult to argue that halal is commercially valuable while treating the research and infrastructure behind it as someone else ' s bill.

Practical contributions can include co-funding research on halal-critical materials and processes; sponsoring industry-linked postgraduate projects; sharing anonymised data; investing in halal-suitable excipients and processing materials; assigning specialists to technical committees; and developing local suppliers with stronger traceability.

Early participation also gives firms a clearer view of emerging expectations, allowing them to anticipate evidence needs, redesign processes and manage future compliance costs.

GOVERNMENT ROLE

None of this removes the government ' s role. Early-stage and public-interest research may have benefits that no single company can capture, which justifies public investment, and small and medium enterprises may need differentiated support.

The better principle is proportionality: public resources should catalyse participation, while the scale of industry contribution reflects company size, capability, risk and likely benefit.

Co-funding need not always be financial; it may include staff time, facility access, materials, data or technical validation. International collaboration programmes commonly combine public support with private cash or in-kind contributions to extend impact and strengthen commitment( Guimón, 2019).

Such arrangements must still preserve research integrity, regulatory independence and appropriate protection of confidential information.

This avoids two unhelpful extremes: expecting government to withdraw before capability is mature or allowing public support to become an indefinite substitute for commercially capable participation. Public money should de-risk pioneering work and build shared capacity, not routinely absorb costs that established beneficiaries can share.

CO-BUILDER, NOT JUST BENEFICIARY

The future strength of the halal industry will not be measured by certification numbers alone. It will depend on scientific capability, trusted standards, skilled professionals, resilient supply chains and credible products in advanced sectors. These foundations cannot be built by government, universities or halal authorities acting separately, nor sustained if industry participates only at the final compliance stage.

The necessary shift is therefore not from criticism to blame, but from expectation to partnership. Industry should be invited and, where appropriate, expected to help shape research questions, contribute evidence, share expertise and invest proportionately in common capability. Public institutions, in turn, must provide clear governance, protect independence and design collaboration that recognises legitimate commercial constraints.

A mature halal ecosystem is one in which benefits and responsibilities are more closely aligned. The critical question is no longer whether industry contributes at all, but whether its contribution is systematic, substantive, and sustained enough to meet the ambitions collectively set. Moving beyond the logo towards co-building is how the Quintuple Helix becomes an operating model rather than an attractive phrase.-

“ If halal assurance creates market access, consumer confidence, risk management and brand value, then investment in the enabling ecosystem is a legitimate business responsibility.”