H.E. Abdulla Al Saleh
Undersecretary, Ministry of Economy, UAE

H.E. Abdullah Ahmed Al Saleh has held the position of Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy since September 2020. He has 29 years of experience in the federal government, where he worked as a diplomat with Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 13 years. He worked at the UAE Embassy in Washington DC (1993-1998), and the UAE Embassy in Paris (2000-2003) and in other departments at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was assigned to work in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the period between 1998-2000. He is a board member of the UAE Gender Balance Council, board member of the Emirates Council for Artificial Intelligence and Block- chain, board member of Emirates International Accreditation Centre, and a member of advisory boards for some colleges and universities in the country. He holds a BA in political science from the UAE University (1990), and a master's degree in international politics from the American University in Washington, DC (1997).

The Department of Tourism, J&K is the main developmental, promotional and regulatory arm of the J&K Government. Its main role comprises of overall planning and execution of schemes for the development, up-gradation and improvement of the tourism infrastructure in different parts of the UT. Support to the private sector industry in the form of incentives for settings up various tourist facilities as well as for promotion and marketing of their products and services. Promotion and marketing of various tourist destinations and products of the regulation of the travel-trade by enforcement of provisions of J&K Registration of Tourist Trade Act (1978/82).

The Department of Tourism has Tourist Offices in all the tourist resorts of the UT. In addition, there are 6 promotional offices outside the UT, one each at New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. Also, there is one provincial Director of Tourism each for Jammu and Kashmir Divisions. The Department also has Engineering Division under its control for the implementation and execution of various schemes for formulating and monitoring the plan schemes, the Department has a Planning Wing and for overall marketing and promotion, the Department has a Publicity Wing.

For safeguarding the interests of tourists visiting Jammu and Kashmir, the UT has enacted a special legislation titled the "Jammu and Kashmir Registration of Tourist Trade Act, 1978/1982". Under this act, all the Tourist Officers posted in different resorts have been vested with special powers as Prescribed Authorities to register and regulate the tourist trade in their respective areas of jurisdiction, and to look into complaints from tourists visiting the State, the Department has an Enforcement Wing headed by a Superintendent of Police on deputation from the Police Department who is designated as Deputy Director Tourism (Enforcement). For cases requiring prosecution, written complaint of a tourist is admissible as evidence even if he may have left the State.

Read More