Efforts to promote Malaysian food require special allocation — Rais Yatim

SHAH ALAM: Efforts to introduce Malaysian heritage food abroad requires special allocations to enable large- scale promotions, says Socio- Cultural Advisor to the Government Tan Sri Dr Rais Yatim.

As such he had requested the government, particularly Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on the need for a special division or department to be established to carry out the promotions.

“If we do not move proactively in that direction, we will be left behind (compared to other countries). We cannot just organise tourism-based promotion, when in terms of our heritage food, we are not so famous, and the steps taken by McD ( Mc Donald’s) and Pizza Hut clearly show they have overtaken us.

“So as a country in the Malay archipelago, or in Malaysia itself, we need to have a new attraction through food,” he told reporters after launching and delivering the keynote address at the Heritage Food Symposium 2017 here, yesterday, which was a joint venture between the School of Culinary and Gastronomical Studies, the Hotel Management and Tourism Faculty of Universiti Teknologi Mara ( UiTM) Puncak Alam and the National Heritage Department.

The symposium, held for the very first time, aims to create awareness and concern among academics and the public on the importance of heritage food, as well as to raise the level of Malaysia’s traditional cuisine.

Earlier in his keynote address, Rais said heritage food culture needed to be developed in tandem with global development, which is increasingly adopting the concept of fast food.

According to him, consuming fast food, which is increasingly popular with a global appeal, had almost made it a staple for the younger generation today.

“Currently, the new trend is more towards other Asian food, and less to our country’s traditional heritage food.

“The entry of foreign food culture has undermined the position of traditional food, it should be emphasised that the promotion of our incredible local food can represent the identity of the community, reinforce local image and regional identity, as well as help to promote the local food culture and heritage of Malaysia,” he said. — Bernama

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