Luanda – Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, inducted today, in Luanda, the new ministers of Tourism, Márcio de Jesus Lopes Daniel, and Culture, Filipe Silvino de Pina Zau.
The secretaries of State for Tourism, Hélder Jonas Leonardo Marcelino, and for Culture, Maria da Piedade de Jesus, also took office.
In his inauguration speech, João Lourenço highlighted the Ministry of Tourism's update, which will now be independent from the Culture sector.
He informed that the split aims to allow the new sectors to dedicate themselves exclusively to tourism and culture.
He mentioned that tourism is very important for the national economy, and within the framework of the effort that the Executive has been making to diversify the economy, find other sources of income, mainly foreign exchange, as well as boost the non-oil economy.
Tourism, he reinforced, is a good ambassador for countries that have a developed sector, because it takes the name of these countries to the four corners of the world and creates a lot of jobs.
He considered that within the scope of the fight against unemployment, especially among youth, tourism is the sector that can contribute considerably to lowering the unemployment rates that unfortunately the country still experiences.
He appealed to the minister of tourism to first carry out a diagnosis to find out why, with all the conditions that Angola has, it is still unable to truly attract tourists.
“The war factor has been overcome for 22 years, we have exempted visas for citizens from more than 90 countries, we have improved the business environment in general and, even so, we see that we do not feel the necessary change when it comes to seeing Angola being sought after as a new tourist destination”, he clarified.
The Head of State invited the different ministerial departments to work together to guarantee the success of tourism, so that it makes a significant change in the sector in Angola, which effectively and absolutely has everything to be successful.
PA/VIC/CF/jmc
