Task force on tourism investment

The government formed a high-powered task force early this week to
encourage and monitor investments in tourism sector from home and
abroad, said the civil aviation and tourism minister yesterday. "We
are trying hard to encourage private sector investment from home and
abroad for the tourism sector to develop its infrastructure. We
formed a task force to encourage and monitor potential investments in
the sector," said GM Quader. "We formed the task force after the
first meeting of National Tourism Council this week," he added. He
was speaking at the inauguration of the permanent campus of Institute
of Tourism and Hotel Management at Dhanmondi in the capital. He said
the government will launch promotional campaign to attract
investments to the sector. "A poor country like Bangladesh cannot
afford the expenses of developing all the infrastructure required to
boost the tourism sector," said Quader. The minister also said the
government is trying to encourage environment friendly tourism in
the country, and has included provisions in the Tourism Act to
conserve bio-diversity. The Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management
was established in November 2007. It started Bachelor's and Master's
programmes from this year. Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal, chairman, and
Islam Mohammad Hasanat, CEO of the institute, also spoke at the
function.