Minister for Tourism and Diasporan Relations Asamoah Boateng, has stated that the difficulty in constituting a new board for the Ghana Tourist Board is due to the fragmented nature of operators in the hospitality industry.

He said, the GTB was brought into force by a decree in 1973, at a time when its membership was skewed towards Government Institutions, including the Ghana Armed Forces due to the fact that government was managing Tourism facilities such as hotels, Restaurants, among other things.

Answering questions from Inusah A B Fuseini (NDC, Tamale Central) who asked the Minister for Tourism and Diasporan Relations why the membership of the Tourist Board has not been constituted six years after the dissolution of the previous Board, he said, since government divested itself from engaging in hospitality business in the early 1990s, not much has been done to change the Decree that brought the law into being and this has created a vacuum.

According to him it is the change in decree and the fragmented nature of operators in the industry that has caused the delay in constituting the board.

“Mr Speaker, the best thing to do under the circumstance, is to review the law to include the private sector on the Board, which will be in line with current tourism development practice all over the world, the Ministry has therefore prepared a comprehensive Tourism Policy to cover all aspects of tourism, which is now before cabinet” he stressed.

He told the House that, the process has begun for the appointment of the Ag. Executive Director and his two Deputy Executive Directors, as the substantive Executive Director and Deputy Executive Directors of the Ghana Tourist Board when the same MP enquired from him when Principal Officers of the Tourist Board will be appointed.

The Minister also told the House that the “Joseph Project” and PANAFEST are different projects and that it is not a duplication of efforts, adding “In any case, in tourism the more successful events that a country puts together goes a long way to boost the industry”.

This was in answer to Joseph Yieleh Chireh (NDC, Wa West) who wondered whether the Joseph Project is not a duplication of the Emancipation and PANAFEST Programmes and therefore a waste of scarce national resources.

Mr Asamoah Boateng indicated that the Pan African Historical Theatre Festival is a festival of Pan African arts and culture, which creates a platform for showcasing the African arts and culture in all its diverse forms.

He said, “While PANAFEST aims at uniting Africans through arts and culture. Emancipation event serves as a remembrance of the abolition of chattel slavery and aims at drawing international attention to the contributions of Africans in fighting for their emancipation. Therefore, during the celebration, major activities are focused on honouring our heroes, who fought for the abolition of slavery,

The Akwaaba Anyemi Programme commonly known as the Joseph Project is a series of activities aimed at reaching out to our Brothers and Sisters who have been forcibly uprooted from Africa and have been lost to their homeland for more than 400 years”.

According to him, the programme is meant to strengthen the bond amongst all who have been victims or have been associated with the slavery era. Saying that, “The programme is to give us a sense of moral and emotional pilgrimage that, reminds mankind of our past mistakes and to prevent their occurrence in any form or shape”.

“Above all the Akwaaba Anyemi Programme Joseph Project seeks to invite the African Diaspora to utilise their resources to generate development and investment in Ghana in particular and in Africa generally” he added.

He said, “The Joseph Project, if anything, will rather strengthen PANAFEST and Emancipation and make them richer in content and enhance the personal experiences of the Diasporans”.