HDC TO LAUNCH WORLD`S FIRST HALAL DIRECTORY WIDGET

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 (Bernama) -- The Halal Industry Development Corporation
(HDC) will launch the world's first Halal Directory Widget on Aug 31 and expects
it to draw about 50,000 users a month.

The widget on HDC's website, www.hdcglobal.com, provides information on
local and international halal companies and products certified by the Islamic
Development Department Malaysia (Jakim).

"Currently, the HDC website has 200,000 portal hits and we expect 25 per
cent of them to access our widget directory," said HDC vice president (corporate
services) Miti Nurbaya Zainudin.

She said the directory, designed as a promotion and online marketing tool,
could also be installed on users' web portals or blogs using the HDC widget
code.

"With enquiries filtering through the widget and results displayed in
the Halal Knowledge centre portal, companies need not fork out their own money
to start or build their own halal directory database as this directory is
accessible globally," she said.

She said HDC hoped to come out with a mobile widget by year end and also to
expand features in the directory.

Miti said HDC was presently exploring the idea of enabling the widget to
be accessed through Facebook, the free-access social networking website on the
Internet.
-- BERNAMA