On Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan constituted the National Coordination Committee on Tourism. The committee aims to direct the country to become the fastest-growing tourism destination.
As per the statement from the PM’s office, “steer the country towards becoming the fastest growing tourism destination” the notification further says that the committee will seek to raise the keenness of the tourism industry and “maximize utilization of Pakistan’s natural, cultural, historical, archeological, religious and geographical tourist assets for employment creation, poverty reduction, sustained economic growth, social inclusion and quality of life improvement”.
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The committee’s convener will be Zulfi Bukhari, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development. Moreover, he will be leading the committee and chief secretaries of the ministries of industry and production, religious affairs, aviation, interior, communication, defense, and climate change will be the part of the committee.
Also, the deputy governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, managing director of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation, chairman Evacuee Trust Property Board, and all chief secretaries or additional chief secretaries are members of the committee.
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A few hours before, PM Imran Khan took on twitter where he posted the following TORs of the National Coordination Committee on Tourism from the Prime Miniter Office’s twitter handle;
- Oversee and review implementation of National Tourism Strategy and alignment/integration of Provincial /Regional Policies/actions to National Tourism Strategy/Action Plan.
- Implementation of Directives by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tourism and the progress thereof.
- Geo-mapping and profiling of all tourist spots/attractions/destinations, tourism & hospitality business, products, services providers etc.
- Identification of barriers to tourism development with concrete recommendation/directions for their removal to create an enabling environment for tourism sector to operate competitively and ensure implementation.
- Identify policy and legislative impediments and develop and recommend measure to overcome them.
- Devise effective regulatory and implementation mechanism of National Minimum Standards while ensuring its monitoring and coordination with all stake holders for its strict compliance.
- Promote tourism investment through PPP, SME and access to capital etc. and oversee availability of International Standard Feasibilities of viable projects.
- National Coordination Committee on Tourism constituted by PM Imran will hold regular fortnightly meetings to review progress on the deliverables.
- Identify and oversee implementation of initiatives for improvement of tourism.
- Devise and oversee strategy to encourage affordable domestic tourism and identify viable options to ensure the growth of domestic tourism in a systemic manner.
- To identify and suggest measures to promote formal training to improve skill set of human resource related and working in the industry.
- To make required decisions and issue instructions to the relevant Ministries/Divisions/Departments/ Stakeholders and organizations with timeline and monitor progress/implementation.
- Act as focal point for inter-provincial, inter-ministerial, inter-departmental and inter-agency coordination to resolve implementation issues with respect to tourism sector development.
