KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today said Malaysian cuisine such as satay, nasi lemak and teh tarik should be among the country’s main attractions in efforts to promote the Visit Malaysia Year 2026 campaign.
He said food remains one of Malaysia’s strongest draws for international visitors, noting that local delicacies have received overwhelming response at international expositions.
“At the Osaka Expo, believe me, one of the most popular and most visited booths was the Malaysian pavilion — especially for Malaysian food,” he told the Dewan Rakyat during Prime Minister’s Question Time today.
“Among the favourites are satay, nasi lemak and teh tarik. If you ask me as a Penangite, I would say nasi kandar, but unfortunately it wasn’t there,” he said in jest.
Anwar said the response to Malaysian cuisine in Japan was particularly impressive, as visitors — including many locals — were willing to queue for long periods to buy Malaysian dishes despite the higher prices.
“This is a positive development that deserves more attention from the Tourism Ministry,” he said, responding to a supplementary question from Tebrau MP Jimmy Puah Wee Tse.
Puah also suggested that Malaysia enhance its tourist-friendly image by providing more multilingual signage, particularly in Chinese, Tamil, Hindi and Korean, to help visitors navigate the country.
In response, Anwar said such measures were unnecessary as Malaysia already provides adequate assistance for tourists at key entry points such as airports.
“When there are many Arab visitors, we provide some Arabic assistance at the airport — but there’s no need to put up too many Arabic signboards,” he said.
“The same goes for visitors from China and India. We provide some Chinese-language signs at airports to help them, but there’s no need to have excessive signage in other languages,” he said.
Anwar added that India itself has multiple languages, such as Tamil, Hindi and Urdu, and that the Malaysian government should maintain a balanced approach.
