The Malawi government says it will continue to create a conducive environment for indigenous players in the tourism industry for social-economic development to continue making meaningful strides in the country.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry Tourism, Culture and Wildlife, Issac Katopola made the remarks on Monday in Mangochi during the opening of a 10 day Trainer of the Trainers Capacity building work-shop on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Katopola noted that the tourism and travel sector in the country is highly patronized by foreign owned companies hence the need to empower indigenous business people with business management skills.
“Government, through the National Tourism Policy, has provided for capacitating and empowering indigenous Tourism Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the country.
Our Ministry strongly believes that capacitating indigenous Tourism SMEs, especially the disadvantaged women and youth, will help to narrow the gap between indigenous and foreign owners’ business,” said Katopola
He added: “It is our hope that the Trainers will impart transformative and innovative ideas to our tourism MSMEs to enable them fairly compete and even corroborate, with their foreign counterpart,”
The PS, Katopola also challenged Trainers at the workshop to shape well skilled tourism entrepreneurs that would survive any pandemics and crisis in the near future.
“We are conducting this training at a very critical time when the tourism sector is being hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic.
This place a duty upon trainers to create a pool of not only skilled tourism entrepreneurs but also resilient business that would survive future pandemics and crisis,” said Katopola
The 10 days long Trainer of the Trainers Capacity building work-shop on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) is being funded by the African Development Bank.
