DUSHANBE, April 9, 2010, Asia-Plus — Issues related to expansion of bilateral tourism cooperation between Tajikistan and Iran were the focus of a meeting of Maliksho Nematov, Chairman of the Committee for Youth, Sports and tourism Affairs under the Government of Tajikistan and visiting delegation of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO), led by its deputy head, Seyyed Reza Mousavi, which has taken place here today.
In the course of the talks, Nematov noted that tourism was developing in Tajikistan and to promote further development of the tourism sector the Tajik government had eased visa requirements for citizens of more than 80 countries. However, there is a number of problems in development of tourism in the country and one of the main of them is lack of skilled personnel, Nematov stressed.
According to him, tourism sector personnel’s training departments have been established at six universities of Tajikistan.
Mr. Seyyed Reza Mousavi, for his part, expressed readiness to provide assistance with training of the tourism sector personnel for Tajikistan. He offered founding of an international university of tourism that would the first of this kind in Central Asia.
“We are ready to assist with solving this issue through providing our specialists for training Tajik specialists here and training more than 50 Tajik specialists in Iran,” Mr. Mousavi said.
The sides agreed to discuss all issues during this day and sign a memorandum of cooperation, the source said.
Iranian delegation arrived in Dushanbe yesterday evening to consider ways of establishment of tourism cooperation with Tajikistan.
Iran Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization is an educational and research institution overseeing numerous associated museum complexes throughout Iran. It is administered and funded by the Government of Iran.
It was established in 1985 by legislation from the Majles (Iran’s parliament) merging 11 research and cultural organizations. It publishes and oversees the publication of many journals and books, and carries out projects in conjunction with foreign museums and academia. It is similar in scope and activity to the Smithsonian Institution. Cultural Heritage News Agency is a non-government news agency that produces cultural, cultural heritage, tourism and art news.
