Tanzania to streamline governance of tourism industry

  Migrating gnus run across the Mara River to Serengeti National Park in north Tanzania. Tanzania has said it will restructure its tourism institutions to make
the sector more efficient. (Xinhua/Tai Jianqiu)

Tanzania is going to restructure its tourism institutions to make the sector more efficient, a minister said Monday.

The restructuring is a necessary step for the country to promote tourism, Tanzanian Tourism Minister Khamis Kagasheki said during a meeting with visiting Zimbabwean
Tourism Chief Karikoga Kaseke. He said there is no need for all of the four entities -- the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, the Tanzania National Parks, the Tanzania
Tourism Board and the Ministry of Tourism -- to be charged with the task of boosting the country's tourism industry. "We need to have only one organization to handle the
promotion matter while the ministry formulates policies and oversees the whole sector," Kagasheki said.

The minister said the planned restructuring is intended to make the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) an umbrella organization and cut the overall operation costs for official
tourism administration bodies. He said he was aware of the challenges to convince these institutions to run under one authority. "But they have to come to an agreement," he
said.Tanzania has abundant tourism resources, and the government has set the promotion of tourism as a priority to shore up its economy.According to official statistics,
Tanzania received more than 800,000 foreign tourists last year. (Xinhua)
PHOTO CAPTION
SERENGETI: FILE-- Migrating gnus run across the Mara River to Serengeti National Park in north Tanzania. Tanzania has said it will restructure its tourism institutions to make
the sector more efficient. (Xinhua/Tai Jianqiu)

3. BUJUMBURA, Burundi: EAC to create regional framework to promote children's rights
Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) is to set up a regional framework aimed to promote children's rights in the EAC bloc, said East African Legislative
Assembly (EALA) MP Martin Nduwimana on the sidelines of the three-day first ever EAC child rights conference that ended in the Burundian capital Bujumbura on Monday.

The conference, whose theme was "Addressing the issues that negatively impact on the realization of child rights in the EAC", attracted at least 150 participants from the five
EAC countries including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. "On top of national legal frameworks for children's rights promotion, participants to this conference
have recommended the creation of a regional legal framework to promote children's rights in the EAC region," said MP Martin Nduwimana at the EALA, EAC's legislative arm.

According to Nduwimana, challenges that children are facing in the EAC include difficulty in accessing education and health services. "This conference helped us have stock of
challenges that children are facing in our region. We have for example learned that about 20,000 children don't have access to education in Tanzania," said Nduwimana.The
East African parliamentarian said that among other things, participants recommended the creation of a regional framework aimed to promote children's rights in the EAC.

Nduwimana said: "This is a serious concern which was raised a couple of years ago. The issue is being discussed and a legal framework of the children's parliament in Burundi
will soon be set up as the framework already exists in the other EAC countries."He said that children are very important in the life of a country as they are the "future" of their
countries. (Xinhua)