Committee of Experts Opens Its Fifteenth Session with a Focus on Sustaining Tourism Industry in Eastern Africa
ECA Press Release No. 10/2011
Djibouti, 21 February 2011 (ECA) - Innovative systems to enable retention of tourism revenues, regional coordination to avoid duplicity, and deployment of resources are key to sustaining the tourism industry in Eastern Africa, said Ali Farah Assoweh, Minister of Finance, Economy, Planning and Privatization of the Republic of Djibouti as he officially opened the four-day 15th Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) meeting under the theme, “Towards a sustainable tourism industry in Eastern Africa”.
Commending the United Nations Economic Commission Sub Regional Office for Eastern Africa (UNECA/ SRO-EA) for organizing the meeting and bringing together experts to discuss tourism, Ali Farah Assoweh, noted that Djibouti’s geostrategic position, attractive and biologically diverse marine base, and investments to improve the business environment offered significant potential for regional and international tourism. He added that the Djiboutian tourism sector remains largely unexploited, accounting for 0.4% of gross domestic product (GDP), despite the fact that the services sector which includes tourism represents 80% of GDP.
The major objectives of the 15th ICE meeting is to examine regulatory issues related to the mandate and operation of the SRO-EA, assess the socioeconomic situation in the Sub-region, create partnerships to develop regional cooperation and integration, and work out the basis for an effective Sub-regional policy for Eastern Africa’s tourism industry.
Parallel Ad Hoc Expert Group Meetings will also be held to review the following non-periodic publications: World Summit Information Society Summit+5; Ecotourism in the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) region and South-South and Triangular Cooperation.
The Director of the UNECA/SRO-EA, Mr. Antonio Pedro, in his opening remarks, said that the global growth of tourism industry had been phenomenal, with tourists’ arrivals increasing from 25 million in 1950 to 681 million in 2000 and reaching 935 million in 2010. The World Trade Organization (WTO), estimates that by 2020, there will be 1.6 billion international tourism arrivals, said Pedro.
He said during 2010, global tourism industry contributed 9.4% to the global GDP, generating over US$ 1 trillion per annum or about US$ 3 billion per day. Furthermore, the sector employed over 235 million people worldwide or 7% of the total workforce.
Tourism also accounts for 30% of all commercial export services, ranking fourth in the export category after fuels, chemicals, and automobiles, according to the WTO.
Mr. Pedro said whilst Eastern Africa’s immense, unique and diversified natural endowments give the subregion a comparative advantage, there was need for investments in education, research and knowledge development to build human capital, as well as infrastructure expansion to harness the full potential of the subregion in tourism.
The 15th ICE also elected its new bureau as follows, Djibouti (President), Tanzania (1st Vice-Chair), Kenya (2nd Vice-Chair), and Comoros (Rapporteur). Upon adoption of the agenda, progress reports were presented and discussed by delegates; (i) Progress of the implementation of Regional and International Programmes, NEPAD, the MDG and other specific initiatives of the Sub-Region, (ii) Sub Regional Coordination Mechanism, (iii) Follow-up on the progress made in the Macro-economic and Social Development in East Africa.
Finally, ECA presented a paper entitled, “Governing development in Africa – the role of the state in economic transformation”
which put forward five key messages for the 2011 joint annual meetings of the Conference of Ministers of the Economy and Finance of the African Union (AU) and the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development of ECA to be held in Addis Ababa from 24-29 March 2011. Uganda.
The five key messages are: That Africa’s growth remains heavily dependent on commodity production and exports; that previous experiences with State-led and market-driven development approaches failed to successfully address Africa’s structural problems;
that structural transformation is essential for sustained economic growth rates; that ssuccessful economic transformation in emerging economies in Asia and Latin America was achieved by deliberate State intervention and that effective development governance in Africa requires developmental states that use the market as an instrument rather than a mechanism.
The SRO-EA is headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda and covers Burundi, Comoros, D.R Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
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More information about the 15th ICE, including documents, organization of work and side events, can be found on the website at http://www.uneca.org/ea/default.htm.
Issued by:
ECA Information and Communication Service P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Tel: 251 11 5445098 Fax: +251-11-551 03 65 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.uneca.org
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