Pakistan seeks Thailand's help in developing tourist resorts

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sort Thailand’s technical assistance in developing resorts in the country, for which Islamabad has already identified projects for developing resorts in hill-stations and along coastline to increase tourism and hospitality in the country.

“We have identified projects and sites, now we want technical support of Thailand for developing resorts at these sites,” Chairman Board of Investment Haroon Sharif told The News.

As Thailand has vast experience in resorts development and tourism and hospitality, so we have requested it to help us out in this sector including developing rules, linkage, transportation and others in this sector. They can develop it and also invest here. Top companies of Thailand in this sector would visit Pakistan soon and we would show them these sites and hope to get their technical assistance in resorts development.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have already expressed their interest in investing in the sector, Sharif said.

Haroon Sharif on Tuesday made this request in a meeting with Ambassador of Thailand to Pakistan Pornpop Uampidhaya to which the ambassador agreed. Haroon Sharif further told The News that we also requested the Thailand Ambassador to arrange a visit of the Thailand’s top companies in this sector, especially resort development as we show them the sites and start work on it with their support.

The Ambassador agreed with the proposal and said that representative from Tourism and Hospitality of Thailand is to soon visit Pakistan to look into the opportunities in this sector.

He said the government is very keen to learn from the Thai experience in hospitality and tourism sector, which is one of the key pillars of Thai economy. Sharif added that the main focus is to develop resorts in hill-stations and along the coastline of Pakistan, where the projects have already been identified. The delegates will be briefed about the opportunities in this sector in Pakistan.