Nigeria presides over 3rd Plenary of UNWTO General Assembly

Nigeria on Friday presided over the 3rd Plenary of the ongoing 22nd General Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation in Chengdu, China.

Our correspondent reports the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed represented the country in his capacity as the Vice President, Africa of the UN body.

United Nations World Tourism Organisation was established to promote tourism globally.

Nigeria emerged Vice- President of UNWTO on Wednesday by affirmation of more than 1300 delegates attending the General Assembly from 130 countries.

It was reported that the maiden assignment by Mohammed as UNWTO vice president witnessed the presentation and adoption of four documents on programmes and works of the organisation for 2016-2017.

The first presentation delivered to the general assembly by the out-going UNWTO Secretary General, Dr Taleb Rifai was on “Implementation of the General Programme of Work for 2016-2017’’.

Rifai also presented “Report on the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017’’ and “UNWTO Convention on the Protection of Tourists and on the Right and Obligations of Tourism Service Providers’’.

The last presentation on “The International Sustainable Tourism on Eliminating Poverty, ST-EP Foundation was presented by Mrs Dho YoungShin from South Korea’’.

It was reported that the four documents were adopted by the General Assembly by affirmation after their respective presentations and the Vice President’s open requests to delegates.

Meanwhile, the newly elected Secretary-General of the organisation, Mr Zurab Pololikashvili, from Georgia has promised to support the development of tourism in Africa and Nigeria in particular.

In an interview with our correspondent covering the general assembly, Pololikashvili said that Africa had a great future and potentials and he would work towards securing and attracting investments in tourism to the continent.

The new Secretary-General said that he looked forward to attending 61st meeting of the UNWTO Commission for Africa in Abuja from June 4 to June 6 2018.

“From the discussions we have heard, your minister, Mr Lai Mohammed has very interesting ideas and agenda for tourism and I believe we will collaborate.

“The next CAF summit is holding in Nigeria and it is my pleasure to be there,’’ he said.