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MESSAGE FROM THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHIEF MINISTER
OF TERENGGANU
Dato' Seri Haji Idris bin Jusoh S.S.M.Z.,
D.P.M.T, P.J.K.
 I
am pleased to welcome all speakers and
participants of the Asia Pacific Ecotourism
Conference (APECO) 2007 which is to be held in
Merang, Setiu, Terengganu from 27th to 28th
October 2007. I would like to extend a
particularly warm welcome to participants from
beyond Malaysia’s frontiers coming from as far
as the 5 continents around the world.
World market trend indicate that tourism is the
world’s fastest growing industry, with
eco-tourism or nature- based tourism at the
fore-front of this expansion. With 224 km of
sandy coastline in the country on the east coast
of Peninsular Malaysia, Terengganu offers an
amazing collection of pristine beaches and
islands that reveals both secluded palm-fringes
coves and popular beachfronts.
The
selection of Setiu as the venue for an
international ecotourism conference is most
appropriate. The Setiu river systems support a
diverse array of marine and terrestrial
habitats. The estuary, a 22-km long lagoon, also
known as the Setiu Lagoon is a very prominent
feature on the coast of Terengganu. The mangrove
vegetation that fringes the coastal area plays a
vital role in providing nursery and feeding
grounds for commercially important fish and
prawn. It also a major landing ground for
endangered species such as hawksbill turtle,
painted terrapin (Tuntong) and estuary
crocodile. I could not have recommended a better
venue to make the best impression on
international visitors.
Terengganu, with its natural beauty has the
potential to be a world-class ecotourism
destination with tourism as a major generator of
economic development in the Eastern Development
Corridor in Peninsula Malaysia. Regional
cooperation in transboundary protected areas
will be a step further along the path towards a
dynamic ecotourism region.
The
many different ecosystems and the high
biological diversity under the jurisdiction of
the Terengganu State Government represent one of
the richest marine assets of national
importance, offering continued economic and
social importance. Much of the State’s tourism
and recreation is focused in the coastal,
islands and marine zones that have specific land
and water requirements. The current broad
distributions of tourism destinations, beautiful
islands, long sandy beaches, remote sites and
popular attractions in urbanized locations-poses
a challenging range of management and
environmental assessment problems.
Your
meeting on our soil at this time affords us the
opportunity of obtaining pointers from other
countries’ experience in the management of our
coastal and marine resources as well as
fostering of regional cooperation. Our State
Government is therefore keenly interested in the
outcome of your deliberations.
We
trust that the outcome of your conference will
be the creation of yet another window of
opportunity for economic development and the
empowerment of communities dwelling on riverine
and coastal areas as well as on small islands in
the Asia Pacific region. Let me therefore wish
you well in your deliberations and leave with
our best wishes for a very successful
conference.
I
would like to invite everyone to stay on after
the Conference and visit the many nature
attractions from the heartland at Lake Kenyir
and beyond the Setiu Wetlands to the nearby
islands of Redang, Perhentian and Lang Tengah.
Return home with cherished memories of
Terengganu’s hospitality, natural beauty and
cuisine and return again next year with your
family and friends to celebrate Visit Terengganu
Year 2008 with us.
For
the few days you will spend with us, make our
State your home. I wish you a pleasant stay and
be assured that Terengganu is very honoured to
be hosting this very important international
conference.
With
best regards,
Dato' Seri Haji
Idris bin Jusoh
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