Budget for holistic tourism

Tuesday, 22 November 2011 01:59 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

IT, shopping and sports are needed as supplementary services for tourism, the Treasury Secretary said yesterday, insisting that these proposals had been included in the Budget.

He insisted that these industries needed to be linked with tourism to create a holistic tourism product. This is also the idea behind an IT park proposed in Hambantota so that more thrust is provided in IT industry.

“All this time we have been talking about migrant workers. We didn’t think about people returning with money to start enterprise development. Credit guarantee schemes can be provided for these people and the banking system will be oriented to promote investment. Money saved from corporate tax should be used by banks for investment fund accounts that will service this move. Predictions are that Rs. 10 billion has been saved to long-term development loans,” he said.