AICC plea to govt on major conferences

Arusha. The Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) has appealed for government support in attracting major international conferences.

Nearly a half of the 23,000-square-metre office accommodation space at AICC are empty following the disbanding of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and pulling out of other tenants including the East African Community (EAC).

Rents the parastatal used to collect from tenants at its office block and the 627 housing units in Arusha City amounted to 80 per cent of the revenue earnings annually until recent developments.

Speaking here on Thursday during the official opening of the Sh3.2 billion exhibition hall within the AICC precints, board chairman Ladislaus Komba said they needed the government support because conferences have spillover effect to the economy.

“Conference centres play a key role in promoting the country’s tourism attractions as well because many foreign delegates end up visiting our national parks and other sites,” he said.

According to him, AICC and the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam have been attracting at least 60,000 conference delegates a year, 40 per cent of them from abroad.

However, he said with the decline of meetings, it was now time for the government to step in and assist the centre in bringing in major international conferences.

AICC, a parastatal under the Ministry of East African Cooperation and Foreign Affairs, recorded a 15 per cent decrease in its revenue in the year ending June 30 last year mainly due to a decline in office rent and conferences.

The centre earned Sh14.6 billion during the 2015/2016 fiscal year compared with Sh17.3 billion recorded in the previous (2014/2015) financial year which ended on June 30, 2015. For the period of 2015/2016, AICC attracted 259 meetings and events with a total of 59,987 delegates.

The decline in income has, however, also been attributed to the depreciation of the shilling, according to the Annual Report 2015/2016, a copy of which was availed to The Citizen.

Dr Komba said the construction of the Lake Nyasa Exhibition Hall has been made to enable the centre to complement its conference activities and by so doing attract more meetings.

The minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Prof Jumanne Maghembe, opened the facility constructed adjacent to the AICC complex, pledging to ensure that the centre gets an affordable land to construct another convention centre in Dodoma.

The centre says a 32-acre land already secured at the envisaged capital would cost a whooping Sh2.4 billion which it feels was too expensive for the parastatal.