Tengku Mahkota of Kelantan, Tengku Muhammad Faiz Petra has expressed confidence the Pakatan Harapan government under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad will return the state its oil royalties.

He was pleased with the matter decided at the Jun 7 National Finance Council meeting.

“In line with this development, I fully support the state government's hope of setting up its petroleum corporation to carry out exploration, process and manage Kelantan's oil resources in an effort to strengthen good relations between the state and the federal government," he said today.

Tengku Muhammad Faiz said the new government under Mahathir will be able to effect many changes and improvements to spur Malaysia towards its goal of being a developed nation by 2020.

He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 14th Kelantan state assembly at Kompleks Kota Darul Naim in Kota Bharu.

In his speech, Tengku Muhammad Faiz said he hopes state projects that had been approved will be continued by the federal government, including the East Coast Rail Line.

On the part of the state government, he said he hopes to see Islamic tourism grow.

“Kelantan is rich in heritage and its people are friendly.

“These are assets that need to be used to welcome tourists who come to this state,” he said.

He said Kelantan's rich heritage of Malay culture, such as silat and dikir barat, should be promoted widely.