AS the National Assembly convened yesterday for  consideration of the estimates of government’s 2012 national budget by sector, government sought and received approval for the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce’s budgetary allocation.
Minister of Tourism (ag), Irfaan Ali , sought a reduction in the estimated cost for water charges, owing to a more efficient system that is now in place, which will see the ministry being more conservative in its use of water, hence the decrease.
Several questions were also posed to the minister with regard to the capital estimates, all of which he answered in their entirety.
Minister Ali, in responding to   A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) member, Donald Trotman’s question about local travel and subsistence, indicated to the House that this figure was reduced by $383,000 due to the implementation of advice posited by the Auditor General, which now sees the ministry having a centralised vehicle pool and management system, instead of relying on the use of taxis to conduct its business.
When asked about the significant increase in consumer protection, Minister Ali explained that the ministry will be doing a lot of work in the consumer affairs section, hence the  additional cost in designing, printing and developing new brochures and booklets, specifically relating to consumer affairs.
Additionally, sector profiles will be compiled in preparation for a business directory.
In response to questions on the composition of the Consumer Protection Commission, Minister Ali said the commission has a director, two economic analysts, one competition policy officer, one consumer affairs officer, one administrative officer, and one finance officer, who are employed on a full-time basis.
On March 30, Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh announced that government will be allocating more than $200M directly to the tourism sector, as it remains one of the sectors in which Guyana has a significant comparative advantage, given its vast and unique endowment of nature, coupled with the fact that the industry has rapidly increased in recent years.
Last evening, the House approved more than just over $1B for the efficient and effective functioning of the ministry, which will see the following allocations: -$499.670M for main office, $87.524M for ministry administration and $467.347M for Commerce, Industry and Consumer Affairs.
Increased marketing of Guyana will be done through heightened participation in international trade shows to continue to sell Guyana as a birding, yachting, and cruise ship destination this year.
The Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development that concluded yesterday in Guyana focused on issues relating to conservation, as well as agro and culinary tourism. The conference allowed Guyana to showcase its tourism product to over 200 delegates and over 30 international journalists from the Caribbean, North America and Europe.
Already, six international television channels, including the BBC and Discovery Channel, are confirmed to film documentaries during the year, targeted at global audiences of hundreds of millions.
The success of the industry is assured to the extent that in order to make continuous improvements to industry service quality, and to raise industry standards, training programmes for service providers and employees in areas such as taxi service, customer care, fire safety, and other service industry best practices, will be conducted. (GINA)