About 4,000 taxi drivers in the Klang Valley will be appointed tourism taxi ambassadors in an effort to enhance the service industry and promote the country. The move followed complaints from tourists about taxi drivers, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.
She added that the pilot project was to provide the drivers with “capacity building” to understand their roles better in nation-building.
“This is part of the Government’s initiative under the Malaysian Tourism Transformation Plan to achieve RM168bil in tourism revenue and 36 million tourists by 2020,” she said after visiting the covered walkway between the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre to Pavilion Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The Minister said the ministry would collaborate with taxi associations and ask them to recommend drivers who could become tourism taxi ambassadors. “The taxi must be clean, the driver must possess basic communication skills and not smoke while driving,” she added.
The taxi drivers would be briefed on various new tourism products and government initiatives. They would also have to attend a one-day course. “The training will be made for batches of 100 people each, which will begin in the middle of March,” she added.
The taxi drivers will be monitored for six months after the course and the selection will be done by a panel comprising taxi associations representatives, Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) and the ministry.
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