Aires Rodrigues wrote on Goanet: >>Panaji's Deputy Mayor, Mr. Yatin Parekh may be the only one, of the hordes to have made official trips abroad, to make some observations on his trip. >>With modern technology all these foreign trips are a wasteful expenditure as all information and knowledge one seeks is on the internet. >>These so called learning expeditions are virtually shopping, sightseeing and merry-making jaunts at taxpayer's expense.
While I will generally agree with the main crux of Aires's post, the Deputy Mayor's case is slightly different. Around 400 Mayors from China and other parts of the World attended the International Mayor's Forum on Tourism that was held in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou. The Chinese Forum organizing committee bore the entire costs of the visit including travel, stay and sightseeing expenses of all the delegates. Yatin Parekh's trip was thus entirely sponsored and was in no way a burden on the Goan Tax payers. Cheers Sandeep
