Yee Sang dispute a form of promotion - Yen Yen

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 31, 2012): The dispute over where yee sang - a Chinese New Year dish - originated will merely increase its popularity, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.

Regardless of the debates, she said, history shows that yee sang has been a popular dish eaten in Malaysia for many years and has been part of the Chinese culture here. "To me, the more the debates, the more people will know about yee sang and that will help it to be popular. "I hope tourists will now begin to seek this dish," Ng said in a press conference after hosting her ministry's Chinese New Year open house today.

She was commenting on new reports that an academician from Singapore wants to claim yee sang as an intangible cultural heritage of Singapore. The academician stated in his Facebook page that he wanted to see Singapore's ownership of yee sang on Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

When asked if the ministry will now actively promote the dish, Ng said it promotes all Malaysian food and not one particular dish. She added that it is not easy to get a particular item into the Unesco's list as it requires a lot of research. "For me, what is important is to see that yee sang continues to progress and develop and is preserved in the Chinese culture," she said.

Earlier, Ng said the ministry has identified two iconic sites to host large scale business events, namely the Thean Hou Temple and the Central Market, both in Kuala Lumpur. It is part of the ministry's effort to establish Malaysia as one of the top five business event destinations in the Asia Pacific.

"We do not have enough iconic venues for business events, so we want to promote more MICE (meetings, incentive, conventions and exhibitions) related events in our country. "We are also looking into making the old Istana Negara as one of the sites for this but nothing has been confirmed," she said, adding that this year, the ministry targets to achieve 1.28 million tourists for MICE related events.

She said the Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) established under the ministry will provide the support, technical assistance as well as help promote the events to international markets.

In another related matter, Ng said the ministry will start rating spas by their ambience, products and facilities as a way to promote Malaysia as a luxurious destination. "We are also looking into increasing and promoting more luxurious shopping space and helicopter tourism for this," she said. Ng said the ministry targets to achieve RM3 billion tourist spending weekly in the country by 2020.

-thesundaily.