BHUBANESWAR: ORISSA and the highly advanced South Korean province of Jellonamdo, the land of Posco, are soon to be sisters. The sisterhood would primarily be based on Buddhist tourism but would encompass development of trade ties including cooperation in small and medium industries and agriculture too.
An MoU to formalise the sisterhood status would be signed in South Korea soon. The issue is being processed at the level of the Ministry of External Affairs and a formal announcement on the relationship would be made on obtaining the approval, MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra said today.
The relationship would start off with fostering tourism ties with not only the Jellonamdo province but the entire South Korea and Japan. The responsibility of bringing in tourists from the North East Asian countries to explore the rich and vast Buddhist heritage and monuments of Orissa as well as other natural and cultural treasures has been shouldered by the Global Cooperation Society (GCS) and UNNGO based in South Korea in collaboration with the Orissa Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC).
It has been proposed to draw at least 100,000 tourists from Japan and Korea this year. Korea has philosophical, cultural and spiritual affinity with India on the sheer strength of its being a predominantly Buddhist nation. However, only a small portion of the population visits India, the land of Buddha and origin of Buddhism.
About 1.2 million Korean tourists come to India of whom 1 lakh go to Bodh Gaya and only around 1,200 to Orissa, despite the State being the most important seat of Buddhism in the world. "Orissa is the Mecca, Jerusalem of Buddhism. It is unfair and out of ignorance that the Buddhists of Korea are not coming to this place and are going to places like China, Nepal and Myanmar in their religious pilgrimage. The GCS and OTDC partnership seeks to change the attitude and raise Orissa into a most sought after pilgrimage place for the Buddhist travellers," GCS Ambassador to UN from South Korea Dr Hong KiKim said.
Kim is here on a visit to State as part of taking the process of partnership forward. He is accompanied by KiChang Chong, chairman of Donsung Global Inc, with global operations in tourism.
The OTDC on its part has set about creating and sprucing up facilities around Buddhist destinations of Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri, Udaygiri, Langudi, Dhauli and Jirang. All the Panthanivases would be given a facelift staring with a complete overhaul of its Bhubaneswar unit. "They would be combined with ecotourism and ocean tourism to give more options to travellers. The Honeymoon island and Saga island at Chilika and Subarnapur at Talasari would be developed into international tourist destinations with stateoftheart facilities, Dagara beach in Balasore would be developed, more cottages would be set up at Lulung," said OTDC Chairman Jyotiskar Mohapatra.
