Speech by Ng Wei Aik, the Political Secretary to Penang Chief Minister and State Assemblyman for KOMTAR for Takasima’s New Product Launching of TK551 F1 Treadmill on 15th of March, 2009 (Sunday) 3.00 p.m. at Queensbay Mall, Penang:
Good afternoon to ladies and gentlemen, especially to Mr Jimmy Lim Cheng Huat, CEO of Takasima Health-Mart Sdn. Bhd.
This is a great occasion for me to here, together with our friends from Takasima as well as sports lovers and health conscious enthusiasts, to witness the launching of a very new product of Takasima – F1 Motorized Treadmill Series TK551.
It is indeed an honour for the State Government of Penang to have Takasima as our CAT partner to encourage all our people to adopt measures that will enhance their health, as well as to increase our competency.
Without Competency, our C.A.T. philosophy cannot work at all because Competency is the first and the most important element in our Competency, Accountability and Transparency (C.A.T.) governance.
Takasima was formed in 1994 as a supplier of fitness equipment in Asia, supplying to countries including Malaysia and others. The company’s first showroom was established on Penang Island in 2006 after the retail business had been set up in the country.
By then, the company began in providing professional consultation and after-sales services for its consumers. From humble beginnings since 2006, Takasima has grown rapidly and is now featured in major hypermarkets, including Queensbay Mall, the place where we are now at.
The state government, under the leadership of The Right Honourable Lim Guan Eng, is committed to improving the health of the nation and the state, but we can only win the battle if you, our people, also commit to moving away from health damaging to health enhancing behaviours and begin to take charge of your own lives.
The key message I want to share with you today is that we all need to modify our behaviours in order to be healthy and to live long. Healthy living is about adopting right behavioural practices such as healthy eating, physical activity and practicing safe sex. We need to also stop smoking and alcohol abuse.
I must hasten to emphasise that leading a healthy lifestyle is not just a social status reserved only for people who are well off. After all, chronic diseases caused by our lifestyle such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and many others do not discriminate between rich or poor, young or old.
I am mentioning all these issues because I am deeply concerned about the level of lifestyle diseases in our country. Research studies indicate that there is a marked increase in a number of people with hypertension and diabetes.
Whilst there are challenges to dealing with some of the reasons advanced by our young people for not engaging in physical activity, we all need to note that physical activity is something one can engage in, anytime and anywhere.
For an example, you can walk to school, walk to work, walk to the shop or church, go up the stairs in a mall or school instead of using a lift. If you are really hard to allocate sufficient time for this purpose, then Takasima in this regard, will help to bring you back to physical activities and healthy lifestyle through its wide range and variety of products, such as treadmill, exercising bike, fitness reflexology machine, advanced cardiovascular equipment, strength equipment and indoor biking equipment,.
In last year, even though in the wake of economic downturn, Takasima is operating 50 showrooms in Malaysia, together with more than 300 dedicated staff members who are devoted to the ideals of good health and superior quality that management has long espoused.
I hope that Takasima will continue its good effort to introduce new products on a regular basis to meet customer satisfaction and demands and also to expand its investment in Penang as well as to create more job opportunities for our Penangites.
On behalf of state government, I would like to put forward our humble request by suggesting Takasima to invest and set up its research and development (R&D) plant in Penang, instead of conducting R&D on its products in laboratories in Japan. I think that Penang is not lacking of pool of experts in the field of health and fitness that Takasima can tab on later.
With these words, once again, I would like to thank Takasima for inviting me; and I hereby announce that F1 Motorized Treadmill Series TK551 is launched.
Thank you very much.
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