KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 5
The joint initiative of Nepal Tourism Board and Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal has targeted to create short-term jobs for 1,000 people from the tourism sector.
A project titled 'Sustainable Tourism for Livelihood Recovery' launched by NTB and supported by the UNDP has been targeted for the workers of tourism sector, one of the hardest-hit areas due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recently, NTB and TAAN signed a Memorandum of Understanding for this project. The project is expected to provide some relief to those workers who were out of work due to the COVID-19 crisis, according to NTB Vice-Chair Chandra Rijal.
NTB Executive Director Dr Dhananjaya Regmi said they were hopeful that the project would help address the unemployment issue in the tourism sector to some extent and retain tourism business and workers.
Under the project, the NTB aims to offer works ranging from around 70,000 mandays to 100,000 mandays. The NTB has decided to come up with such programmes in a bid to provide relief to the tourism workforce in the days to come. The NTB has already signed such kind of agreement with the Hotel Association of Nepal, Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents and Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies.
The NTB will spend the budget worth USD 2 million 50 thousand: 1 million USD on its own and 1 million 50 thousand USD to be supported by the UNDP for implementation of the two-and-ahalf year project. Under this project, the NTB aims to provide short-term jobs to 50,000 workers, particularly from the tourism sector.
Besides, it has set a goal to offer jobs for over 2,000 people by forging partnership with the local levels across the country.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 6 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
