ISLAMABAD: While Prime Minister Imran Khan has vowed to develop eco-friendly tourism in Pakistan, from the beaches in the south to fair meadows in the north, a World Bank-assisted Punjab tourism project for economic growth in the province is moving at a snail’s pace.

The pace of implementation activities needs to be accelerated substantially and despite the fact that the project has initiated a number of activities towards achieving results, three key posts at the project monitoring and implementation unit level remain vacant including project director, says a World Bank report while reviewing the status of the project.

The project which became effective in October 2017 is meant to increase private sector participation and improve infrastructure services in support of the tourism sector in Punjab.

According to the report, the incumbent project director is a civil servant and is holding the position on additional charge basis, whereas fresh recruitment will be made from the private sector. Recruitment of these positions has been delayed due to a ban on recruitment placed by the Election Commission and subsequent restrictions imposed by the Punjab planning and development department as per a notification issued on Sept 18 this year.

It has been decided that a position of civil engineer and tourism specialist will be added to the PC-1, to ensure comprehensive technical input is provided on timely basis.

The project is in the process of procuring consulting services to support achievement of a number of results including implementation of reforms, conducting training for master trainers and identifying curricula for vocational training related to tourism and civil work.

After the 18th Amendment to the constitution, tourism had been devolved to provincial governments, but like other countries of Asia in general and the region in particular, it was important for Pakistan to create a federal level structure that could coordinate activities and ensure uniformed projection of tourism as a sector and specific sites particular, the report observed. The absence of such a body, it said, had been cited as the major constraint to the growth of tourism sector in the country.

The report recommended that a system of electronic visas should be introduced together with multiple entry visas to allow pilgrims to attend multiple festivals in a year, adding that Nadra had the capacity to develop system for issuance of e-visas but this had not yet been approved by relevant departments.

It further noted that in the aviation sector, flights to Pakistan remained expensive with limited direct connectivity from various international airports and, therefore, options for charted flights during tourism seasons needed to be explored.

In the area of immigration, the report said officials needed to be trained and capacity needed to be strengthened to ensure a pleasant experience for tourists coming to the country.

The report emphasised the need for communications, outreach and citizens’ engagement and noted that this was essential to create awareness about the historical and cultural significance of the sites being targeted by the project.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2018