By Amin Kef Sesay
On the 1st June, 2021, Rakesh K. Arora , the first Indian High Commissioner designated to the Republic of Sierra Leone, paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Dr. Memunatu Pratt at the Ministry’s Head Office in Freetown. The rationale behind the visit was to discuss issues related to the development of the tourism sector in Sierra Leone.
Rakesh K. Arora expressed profound delight to meet with the Tourism Minister as she has great ideas in improving the tourism and hospitality sectors in Sierra Leone. He assured that travel between India and Sierra Leone will now be easier because their Mission is finally here and the setting up of the Sierra Leonean Mission in Delhi is also on the cards.
He informed how the Indian Government is supporting Sierra Leone in building it educational infrastructure evident in the granting of a loan for setting up the University in Kono. He stated that they are doing training programmes, giving out scholarships and arranging special programmes to build the capacity of Sierra Leoneans. The High Commissioner pointed out that there are a lot of potential in Sierra Leone’s tourism and that both countries will work closely in harnessing those potentials.
Welcoming the High Commissioner, Minister Pratt said Sierra Leone has been crying for the Indian Embassy for many years as there was great distress in traveling to India, but for the establishment of a full blown Embassy in Sierra Leone, traveling to India will now be easier, thus strengthening the bi-lateral relationship between the two countries.
She explained that Sierra Leone’s tourism has not been given the much needed attention over the years, but with President Bio, he made tourism a priority and one of the growth sectors for employment and tourism is now in Cluster 2 of the Medium Term Development Plan and also a major player in rebranding Sierra Leone.
She said before the outbreak of COVID-19 they managed to attend 12 international trade fairs around the world all geared towards repositioning Sierra Leone’s image internationally.
The Tourism Minister called for more discussions with the High Commissioner with regards enhancing capacity in terms of training Sierra Leoneans in the tourism sector and also enhancing the creative and performing art skills of Sierra Leoneans, collaborating with Indians in producing films to market Sierra Leone and also looking forward to investment in the Tourism Travel Industry.
