Ellron: Foreign tour guides to ease shortage
Published on: Thursday, October 25, 2012
Kota Kinabalu: The Tourism Ministry's policy on licensing foreigners as tour guides, especially in the Korean language, was made to overcome the shortage of local tour guides who can speak the language.Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Datuk Ellron Angin said this in reply to a question from Bugaya Assemblyman Datuk Ramlee Marahaban at the State Assembly, here, Wednesday. He said there's no denying that Sabah, in particular, and Malaysia, in general, lacked local tour guides who are fluent in the language, with only 10 local Korean speaking tour guides in Sabah.ADVERTISEMENT He added, however, that out of this number only two tour guides are still active. "The State Government felt that the work should be performed by local tour guides and not foreigners, as only local guides are well versed with the local culture and tourism products. "However, in order to overcome the shortage of Korean speaking local tour guides, the State Government through my Ministry has been in talks with the Tourism Ministry, the Sabah Tourist Guides Association, the Malaysian Tour Operators Association and other government agencies concerned," he said. He said as a result of the discussion, an agreement was reached in which the Tourism Ministry agreed to give one year to the State's tourism sector to train local guides in the language.ADVERTISEMENT "After this period, the Tourism Ministry will review whether it would still need to licence foreign Korean guides," he said. Meanwhile, another Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Datuk Bolkiah Ismail said it is the responsibility of the Government to provide houses for teachers posted in remote areas in order to overcome the shortage of houses for these teachers."As of July this year, the Education Ministry has provided a total of 6,000 units of teachers' quarters in the State," he said, adding however that this amount was not enough to overcome the lack of facilities, especially in far-flung places.
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Thus, he said, the State Education Department has applied for an allocation of RM240 million under the 10th Malaysia Plan's Third Rolling Plan for the construction of teachers' quarters in the State, including in rural areas. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"So far, the application is still under scrutiny by the Economic Planning Unit," he added. "In addition, efforts are also being made by the Education Department to include teachers' quarters in each new school building project, projects for proposed building replacement and additional building projects which have been approved," he said.