| Next year, the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign will be very important for our country’s tourism sector. The government has set a target of 30 million international tourist arrivals and RM100 billion in tourist receipts through the campaign.
Areas that are designated as STIZ will receive various incentives to stimulate private investments. The details are still being finalised, but we can reasonably expect investment incentives such as tax reduction, grants, and infrastructure development. Broadly, there were 122 private investment projects worth RM7.0 billion in 2013, but this has declined to 63 projects worth RM4.6 billion in 2018 . A majority of these has been domestic investments.
In short, STIZ is therefore important to stimulate more private investment in the tourism sector. Based on the initial announcement by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the STIZ will focus on hard infrastructure and technology-based investments. Both of these areas are indeed important to strengthen the economic capacity of the tourism sector in the long run.The STIZ policy, if done right, will open up new opportunities and growth in the tourism sector.
At present, the government has only identified four areas as STIZ pilot projects. The government should consider designating at least one STIZ for each state in the interest of fairness and to avoid some states losing out to others. Second, tourism operators and associations are the key drivers who know the local ecosystem best. They have an important role in ensuring the successful implementation of our tourism policies and to provide valuable feedback from the ground.
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Source: malaysiakini - 🏆 20. / 51 Read more »