Practise healthy lifestyle, people told

KUALA TERENGGANU: Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin wants his subjects to practise a healthy and active way of life following reports on the increase in cases of diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

“There is an upward trend in such diseases due to inactive way of life, lack of physical exercise and bad eating habits,” he said when opening the fifth session of the 13th state assembly.

“Everyone should exercise more and practise good eating habits. In this respect, the state government is upgrading facilities in recreational areas to be more user-friendly.”

Sultan Mizan said he was happy that the state government had established the secretariat for Tabung Darul Iman as this would enable the people, especially the poor, to receive medical assistance, milk and diapers and to provide assistance to fire victims.

Since last year, he said more than 5,000 people had benefited from the fund and RM8 million had been disbursed.

Apart from state government allocations, the fund was also supported by private donors and government-linked companies.

Sultan Mizan also wanted the state government to expand the tourism sector to provide a longterm revenue alternative to the oil and gas sector, as well as improve on cleanliness, services and safety at tourist spots to give visitors maximum satisfaction.

The Terengganu Tourism Development Plan includes strengthening tourism and heritage products, upgrading resort islands and the development of state parks.

He said state parks had the potential to contribute to the tourism sector and singled out Setiu Wetlands, the first state