By Wezi Tjaronda WINDHOEK Namibia has become the seventh country to implement the Cross-Border Tourism Youth Empowerment (CBYTE). The project, which started in South Africa in 2002 and spread to other SADC countries, is currently running in South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho through the various ministries of youth and tourism and youth commissions. The objectives of the project are to increase the level of youth participation in the tourism sector, to establish joint venture projects that enhance youth’s ownership in the sector and to establish a tourism knowledge bank in each participating country. The initiative started with the idea that although Africa has tourism potential and the sector contributes greatly to the economic growth and poverty alleviation of many countries, the youth are left behind. The Namibian Youth Tourism Empowerment Programmme (NYTEP) was launched on Friday, which also saw the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the National Youth Council and the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sports and Culture. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism, which is party to the programme, will sign at a later date. The MoU will ensure that the three parties find ways to collaborate and make the concept a reality. Namibia Wildlife Resorts Chief Executive Officer, Tobie Aupindi, who is the patron of the programme, encouraged the youth to prepare themselves to partake in national development endevours including tourism, which in Namibia is poised to become the biggest contributor to the GDP by 2015. He said already Namibia is investing heavily in the tourism sector to ensure that it benefits from the opportunities that will be created with the hosting of the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. Aupindi said one of the problems the youth face is fear, which has driven them away from appreciating themselves, adding that the youth should work hard at removing such stumbling blocks. The problem, according to a statement from NYTEP, remains that despite an economic growth resulting from tourism, young people do not actively participate in the sector as investors or equitable partners. The vision of the programme in Namibia is to empower the youth to participate in the tourism industry with a mission to facilitate and coordinate the development of youth opportunities and stimulate youth participation within Namibia and the SADC region. Among others, the programme will promote cultural tourism and interaction among the youth within the region, showcase existing tourism establishments owned by young people, encourage ongoing tourism audits of tourism projects and encourage tourism development in areas where tourism offers a competitive form of land use plans. The project is the brainchild of Establishment for Comprehensive Youth Development (ECYD), which was initiated in 2002 and got a buy-in from the Limpopo Youth Commission and Limpopo Tourism and Park Board. So far, awareness campaigns and entrepreneurship workshops have been held in every participating country. The programme of this magnitude, said the statement, would ensure that young people take an active role in the sector that was previously dominated by the white community.