5Th IMT-GT Meeting Held In Bangka

Pangkalan Baru (Antara Bali) - The 5th Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Working Group Meeting on Tourism will be held in Bangka Belitung islands from July 12th to 13th at the Novotel Convention Center in Pangkalan Baru, Central Bangka.

"The main agenda of the meeting is to formulate the flagship program for tourism cooperation," Deputy Minister for Resources Development I Gde Pitana said here on Thursday.

I Gde Pitana who is also the chairman of the 5th IMT-GT Working Group on Tourism stated that there will be an information sharing initiative among the three countries regarding tourism policies and their management.

"We will also discuss the possibility of developing medical tourism in Bangka Belitung from Malaysia and Thailand," he added.

The meeting will also discuss the cooperation between universities in the less developed region of the three countries in order to strengthen their network.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Bangka Belitung province, Eko Maulana Ali hoped that the meeting could bench mark the development of tourism in Bangka Belitung.

"Bangka Belitung is well known as a tin mining area that has left ecological footprints in the region, thus causing the region to take a long time to recover," the Governor said.(*/M038/IGT/T007)