Wuzhong, home of the Hui ethnic group, is proposing to the National People's Congress to speed up the development of the city into the country's biggest domestic and international industrial cluster for buying, processing and selling halal products - foods allowed under Islamic dietary guidelines.

Bai Shangcheng, mayor of the city in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, said the city is also cooperating with established halal food brands in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates to get its products certified for trade in overseas markets.

"Though more than half of Wuzhong's 1.42 million population is Muslim, we still need certification to go abroad," said Bai.

"Wuzhong has a great opportunity to revitalize the Silk Road economic zone, and that's the reason why we aim to use resources and markets in and out of China.

"We need an international perspective to devise a development plan for the halal industry."

According to a US think tank, the Pew Research Center, the world's Muslim population in 2009 was more than 1.57 billion, or 23 percent of the total global population.

The biggest consumers of imported halal foods are countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, and statistics show the annual value of such food imports in the Persian Gulf alone reached $10 billion.

Domestically, a growing demand for halal products has been seen in Shanxi province, Henan province, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, besides steady consumption in Gansu province and the Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions.

Zhang Zhigang, deputy head of economic development under the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, said trade values of Chinese-made halal foods account for less than a 0.1 percent share of the world's market, posing "great potential for international development".

Many regions in China have already begun tapping into the opportunity.

The latest available figures show there were 655 companies producing 17.4 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) worth of halal foods in Ningxia in 2009.

An earlier report quoted the deputy mayor of Lanzhou, Gansu province, as saying the city is also positioning itself to build an industrial zone for research and development, production and sales of halal foods.

However, Bai, the Wuzhong mayor, said he believed his city has unparalleled potential as a major producer of halal foods. He cited the city's high Muslim population and its significant concentration of halal food companies that are well known to Muslim communities worldwide.

Riding on the tide of the autonomous region's effort to build a bridgehead to the West, Wuzhong in Ningxia, which enjoys rich natural reserves including coal, has given policy preference to pushing the agenda forward.

The government of the autonomous region also made a blueprint and a draft guideline for developing halal products and foods, listing Wuzhong as the core development venue for the industry.

Yet, the obstacle is the absence of certification for the quality of Chinese-made halal products that would allow them to penetrate new markets, according to Bai.

The most recognized halal foods are ones made in Indonesia and Malaysia that meet local standards.

"In Wuzhong, we have difficulties in exporting the foods. We only have a limited variety of foods and lesser known brands," Bai said.

Therefore, the city authorities have signed agreements with companies in Malaysia and the UAE to use their standards in producing halal foods with their certificates.

Bai added that Wuzhong's industrial zone for halal products and foods, which now covers 24 square kilometers and will expand to 60 sq km, would also find supplies of rare materials, such as lamb from Kazakhstan, to sell around the world.

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