Government will not privatise the motels, which are earning money and the Board of Directors of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) has decided not to take up process of privatising these motels in the greater public interest.
This decision was taken in first meeting of the reconstituted Board of Directors of the Corporation held on Thursday, with Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Federal Minister for Water and Power in the chair.
Government has already allotted 25 acres of land to Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) for construction of tourist village in Islamabad to promote tourism and tourism related activities in the country to attract foreign and local tourist, the board meeting was informed.
The PTDC was asked by the Board to accelerate work on this project and make sure the early completion besides submit a detailed plan in next meeting. The government has also decided to restructure the PTDC to promote tourism and tourist related activities to attract the foreign as well as local tourists towards the tourist resorts.
The meeting of the board was convened to discuss ways and means for the development and improvement in the infrastructural facilities for the promotion of tourist activities in the country.
A three-member technical committee comprising Omer Khan Afridi, former Federal Secretary, Javeed Majeed and Iqbal Waljis was constituted to formulate a comprehensive strategy for restructuring of the PTDC. The committee will make recommendations with novel and innovative ideas to make PTDC more viable and tourist friendly organisation.
The PTDC Board of Director reviewed the progress of actionable points of last meeting and after detailed discussion approved the corporation accounts for the year 2007.
Federal Minister, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf while addressing the board of directors of PTDC said "With collective vision and knowledge we can move forward to strengthen tourism industry in Pakistan". Pakistan has a lot of potential and scenic beauty to attract the foreign tourists and it is imperative to improve the infrastructure, he said. He stressed the need to educate people to create an interaction among the people for importance of tourism, which would help strength, the federation as well.