Thursday 17 November 2011

ENTREPRENEURSHIP; KEY INGREDIENT TO JOB CREATION - PHIRI


Government has observed that entrepreneurship is one of the key ingredients to job creation and therefore has the potential to successfully drive the economy of the country.
And the Patriotic Front (PF) government has been challenged to come up with policies that would compel investors in the tourism industry to invest in human resource development in order to achieve sustainable growth in the tourism industry.
Officially opening a three day skills training workshop on event management, tour guide and entrepreneurship at Livingstone Institute of Business and Engineering studies (LIBES) yesterday, Minister of Education, Science and Vocational Training John Phiri said the rapidly changing trends in the hospitality industry call for investment in human resources if sustainable growth was to be achieved.
Dr. Phiri noted that entrepreneurship training in the hospitality industry would impart people with knowledge and entrepreneurship skills on how to establish their own enterprises.
He said the PF government's vision, as outlined in the party manifesto, was to revamp the tourism sector so that it can contribute immensely to the economic development of the country.
Dr. Phiri reaffirmed government's commitment to supporting all efforts aimed at enhancing local skills in the tourism sector.
"I wish to state here that the event we are witnessing today marks the start of various initiatives to resuscitate the tourism industry that the PF government will undertake in line with the manifesto on tourism development," he said.
Dr. Phiri also said government will continue to promote partnerships with the private sector so as to enhance local skills and marketing of the tourism industry locally and internationally.
The workshop, which has been conducted by LIBES in partnership with the Programme Utilization Management (PUM ) senior experts from Netherlands, focuses on tourism entrepreneurship, tour guiding and event management.
The minister also urged tourism operators in Livingstone to take advantage of the training workshop to enhance skills of their employees.
Dr. Phiri also thanked the Netherland government for supporting the tourism sector in Livingstone through human capacity building initiatives since the start of the  agreement between LIBES and PUM of Netherlands in 2009.
Meanwhile, Dr. Phiri has advised students at LIBES to focus on their studies and not lose hope as the PF government was addressing their concerns.
And the PF government has been challenged to come up with policies that would compel investors in the tourism industry to invest in human resource development.
Speaking at the same function LIBES Board Chairperson, Alexander Mulenga noted that very little was done in committing investors in the country to develop human resource.
Mr. Mulenga advised the government to come up with policies and guidelines that would compel investors to contribute to man power development in the tourism sector.
And LIBES Principal, Thomas Kalantiya, noted that implementation of  the project almost hit a snag due to a number of challenges.
Mr. Kalantiya explained that among the challenges was lack of willingness by the Livingstone tourism operators to support the initiative which he said has resulted into limited human resource skills in the sector.
Meanwhile, PUM Netherlands senior expert, Fetze Pijlman also noted that the growth of the tourism industry rests on the skills training in order for the country to compete favourably on the global tourism market.
ZANIS

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