KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry will be launching the Sugar Advocacy Plan to tackle the issue of excessive consumption of sugar by Malaysians.
Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said this was also an effort to overcome non-communicable diseases (NCDs) especially diabetes.
"The plan comprises programmes for all age groups from children at pre-schools up to senior citizens.
"The plan will also include non-governmental organisations (NGOs), parents groups, village heads, parliamentary and state constituencies," she said during Minister Question Time (MQT) today.
She was responding to an additional question by Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen (Bandar Kuching-PH) on efforts to create awareness on excessive sugar intake.
Earlier, Dr Zaliha revealed that the government spends RM9.65 billion annually specifically for tackling NCD.
She said this allocation was based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) requirement.
She said the amount was 16.8 per cent of the total expenditures for the health sector.
Out of this allocation, most of the money was spent to address diabetes at RM4.38 billion, followed by cardiovascular disease (RM3.93 billion), and cancer (RM1.34 billion).
The cost includes for hospital admissions, primary care at clinics and outpatient treatment at hospitals, health screening and medications.
"For 2017, NCD gives a negative impact indirectly to the economy with loss of RM12.88 billion from a decline in productivity," she added.