Industry & Economy
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Tourism
BIMSTEC nations to set up tourism fund
Our Bureau
Kolkata
,
Feb. 25
THE three-day meet of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation (BIMSTEC) countries' Tourism Ministers has decided to set up a "tourism fund'' for joint publicity and promotion of tourist destinations of the BIMSTEC-member countries.
There is also a plan to establish a Tourism Information Centre in India for producing and updating publicity and collateral material.
The proposed fund will be created with an initial annual contribution of $10,000 by each BIMSTEC country while the Asian Development Bank has agreed to provide technical and financial support to help BIMSTEC develop and promote tourism sector in South Asia.
The meet, organised by the Union Ministry of Tourism, was instrumental in the signing of a joint declaration and has called for simplification of immigration procedures for smooth flow of tourists. The declaration states that member countries would devise cost-effective thematic packages connecting different destinations in the region.
Reaffirming their commitment made at the July 2004 Bangkok summit of BIMSTEC, the meet decided to take steps to double tourism business in the region in the next five years. It was observed that geographical contiguity and primary access to the Bay of Bengal of all the member countries presented sizeable opportunities.
It has been decided to hold the meet annually and the next one will be held along with the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Myanmar in 2006. An action plan has been drawn up by the participating delegates to be implemented and monitored by an established mechanism.
The meet was chaired by the Union Minister of State for Tourism, Ms Renuka Chowdhury, and attended by the Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister of Bangladesh; the Finance Minister of Bhutan; the Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister of Nepal; the Tourism and Sports Minister of Thailand the Director-General (Tourism) of Myanmar, senior officials of Sri Lankan Government, and representatives of the ADB.
Later, Ms Chowdhury told newspersons that the UPA Government would continue to give top priority to tourism development as the area had a good potential to generate direct and indirect employment.
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