The Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA) will represent Lesotho at a regional conference to explore tourism opportunities to be held in Zimbabwe from December 02 to 06. In an interview, the Regional Coordinator for the Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA), who will attend the conference, Mr. Limpho Salae, said the conference is expected to explore ways to boost the tourism industry in the SADC region as well as to discuss how the retrenched mineworkers could contribute in the building of this industry.

Mr. Salae said it is their expectation to find projects that people in the region, especially the mineworkers, could engage in, in order to boost the economy through tourism in the region. He said it has come to their attention that retrenched mineworkers could contribute a lot to the development of the tourism industry, quoting bed and breakfast lodges and pony trekking for use by tourists as examples.

Meanwhile, following the recent tourism conference held for mineworkers in Lesotho, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment has expressed willingness to provide training for former mineworkers so that they could efficiently run their businesses. More workshops that will focus on regional network in the tourism industry are expected to follow in due course.

26 November,2002