Dar es Salaam [Tanzania], December 19: Tanzania's Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi on Sunday opened the 6th Kiswahili international conference and urged delegates to make the language global.
Mwinyi urged the delegates from across the world to support efforts aimed at demonstrating the importance of Kiswahili for Zanzibar, Tanzania, and the world at large.
"Let us join forces in promoting the use of Kiswahili with a view of making it one of the global languages," he told the delegates to the conference organized by the Zanzibar Kiswahili Council on Pemba Island.
Mwinyi said Kiswahili stood a chance of playing a major part towards national economic development as well as individual economic empowerment as teachers will get employment to teach the language in various countries, including South Africa and in the seven member states of the East African Community (EAC).
He said many countries were shifting to using Kiswahili in their radio and television broadcasts and teaching the language in their high learning institutions, which was also another opportunity for Tanzanians to get employment.
The 41st session of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proclaimed July 7 of each year as World Kiswahili Language Day.
Source: Xinhua
