Tuesday, May 8, 2006 – 11:30 PM in Kuala Lumpur
My first day in Malaysia was a memorable one for many reasons – mostly good and one bad. First the good reasons - KL is a beautiful city and its people are kind and helpful – and they know how to do business. I returned a short while ago from the gala dinner held to open the World Halal Forum. It was addressed by Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and Mr. Khairy Jamaluddin, the Chairman of the World Halal Forum. The entire event was extremely well organized. Industry heavyweights from all over the world, trade officials, and media (that’s DinarStandard) mingled while an assortment of booths displayed their offerings. These included CIMB Islamic, the major Islamic financial institution, and Nestle who were handing out their goodies to dinner invitees.
What the dinner did most importantly was set the tone for the entire week of events. The World Halal Forum is marketing “halal” in a big, “in your face” way. Some quotes from the opening video presentation – “Halal is a centuries old concept”… “Halal is a way of life”… “Its quality standards attract Muslims and non-Muslims”. The event said Halal is no longer just a niche market. It is here to stay and you can all (Muslims and non-Muslims) make money serving this growing, global market. This is going to be an exciting conference!!!
And now for the bad news – now don’t laugh. Basically, my luggage was lost in transit in Sweden. Ugh!!!... I was informed this afternoon that they’ve located it and it should reach KL tomorrow late afternoon sometime. Let’s all hope and pray this is the case. I’ve already gone out and bought replacement clothes to take me through the next day or so. Sorry… some last bad news… my luggage has the charger for my camera. So any pictures I did take today… I can’t post them on the blog. These things happen unfortunately…
Stay tuned for more from KL…
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