Australia assists Sri Lanka narrow tourism sector’s disparity gap in Eastern Province
Australian Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), is reportedly investing over Australian Dollars 15 million to implement Stage I of the S4IG project in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province to narrow the tourism sector’s disparity gap.
The programme is aimed at addressing many issues faced by the SME sector involved in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry.
The project which commenced two years ago had already seen around half of this amount being invested, S4IG team leader of the project, David Ablett has been quoted as saying in the local media.
He has said that the balance would be disbursed before November 2020.
The local media has reported that the S4IG is a skills programme used in the tourism sector to explore and demonstrate successful models of change within skills providers and formal and informal tourism enterprises across Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Polonnaruwa districts in Sri Lanka by showcasing coordinated, demand driven, flexible and inclusive skills development.
Australia’s S4IG programme is implemented with Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training.
Ablett has noted that after the Easter Sunday attacks, tourism in the Eastern Province was also badly affected, especially the SME sector.
“As building tourism resilience is relevant to all segments of the industry, we too held a series of workshops for small and medium players across the country, ending with sessions in Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee, which were conducted in Sinhala and Tamil,” he has said.
According to Ablett, the Eastern Province in Sri Lanka has been earmarked by the tourism industry as the country’s next emerging tourist hot spots.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s tourism sector is on a steady growth path, which has resulted in many foreign businesses/investors exploring business/investment opportunities in the country’s tourism sector. There have been many foreign investments that have come in to Sri Lanka’s tourism sector. Foreign businesses/investors could therefore explore business opportunities in Sri Lanka’s growing tourism sector.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/21102019/Z_4 |