Published on : Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Lately, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia has explained Visit Malaysia Year or VMY 2020 as a national mission of the country and an important catalyst for the tourism sector to make sure Malaysia remains competitive.
Themed ‘Travel. Enjoy. Respect’, the deputy prime minister stated that VMY will turn out to be the core agenda in attaining the tourism target for the country under the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan.
After realizing this, Zahid, who is the Home Minister as well, explained that a VMY2020 Secretariat has been developed under Tourism Malaysia, which is responsible for planning and organizing activities for the campaign.”All relevant ministries, government agencies and departments are prepared to give its full commitment to make sure the campaign achieves its target,” he said after chairing the Tourism Cabinet Committee Meeting.
Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim and Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali were also present at the meeting.
Zahid explained that the meeting was arranged to organize all ministries and agencies to further develop the tourism sector of the country.
In 2017, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had declared at the time of his 2018 Budget speech that the tourism campaign (VMY) of the country was developed to make a return in 2020.
“In the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA), the industry was third largest contributor at RM73.3 billion to the Gross National Income (GNI).
“Total employment in the tourism industry also recorded a high number with 3.2 million people or 22.7 per cent of the total employment in 2016,” he added.
Tags: Visit Malaysia