Mavinga — The Minister of Tourism, Márcio Daniel, on Friday defended the need to reduce bureaucracy in the business environment in Cuando province in order to speed up private investment in the region.
Speaking to the press at the end of a visit to Cuando province, the minister said that tourism in the region has great potential to boost the development of different segments of the national economy, especially agriculture, security, health and commerce.
The minister defended the need to work harder at the local level to remove all the red tape that hinders private sector investment.
“We have met with the governor and investors and mapped out the difficulties we still face and given them deadlines to remove them. It’s also true that access to land is still one of the main challenges”, said the minister.
According to the minister, the government will require those who apply for land to develop tourism activities to prove that they have the technical and financial capacity to carry out the activity under defined contracts.
Over time, we have seen and witnessed large tracts of land being granted to entrepreneurs who have done nothing. We don’t want to repeat that here,” the minister stressed.
Márcio Daniel said he believes that the province of Cuando will soon see the construction of resorts that have the potential to transform the region into a high-income tourism zone to compete with the big players in the region.
Lúcio do Amaral, the local governor, said that the government will take decisive steps to attract investors to the region and contribute to its development, especially in the ecotourism sub-sector.
During the meeting with the local authorities, various businessmen presented initiatives for the development of tourism and other sectors of the provincial economy, as well as suggestions for reducing bureaucracy in the business environment of the region.
Organized by the Ministry of Tourism in partnership with the Cuando government, the event was attended by officials from the National Council for the Management of the Okavango Region, national directors, members of the government, local and foreign business people, traditional authorities and other guests.
The aim of the meeting was to discuss with investors strategic and concrete plans to attract investment in the various tourism sectors in the Okavango Region in a competitive, transparent and sustainable manner.
Launched in 1993, the Okavango/Zambezi Regional Project (KASA) is the largest transboundary initiative on the African continent, covering 444,462 square kilometers. It links 36 protected areas in Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia in the Southern African region. VS/OHA/AMP
