Trainees in group photo with MINEPIA & Japanese Embassy officials
By Solange Tegwi
The Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, Dr Taïga, has called on selected staff of his Ministry to be hardworking, assiduous and more collaborative as they undergo training by Japanese experts.
He beckoned on them to make efforts to master lessons taught so as to ensure the success of the projects funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
He made the call in Yaounde this October during the launching of a training seminar on technical cooperation within the framework of projects carried out by JICA in Cameroon particularly the case of aquaculture with MINEPIA.
Minister Taïga admitted the support both financially and economically from its partners to promote the development and home production of fish, but underlined that JICA has been playing a preponderant role as a key partner for the past two years in this field of fishing and now aquaculture.
He stated that huge sums of money have been chipped into projects ranging from hundreds of millions to tens of billions. These include the construction of the fishing centre in Magassa Yaounde, and Noupoue fishing centre in the Sanaga Maritime. He added that FCFA 600 million has been disbursed by the Japan International Cooperation System (JICS) for the equipping of the Kribi fishing centre.
Without mincing words, he acknowledged the receptiveness of the Japanese cooperation when it comes to supporting projects. It is on this basis that the Minister called on the MINEPIA trainees to open up their minds in order to understand the Japanese cooperation model, stating that each collaborator has its specific modalities.
According to Dr Taïga, if they master the modalities, it will go a long way to build sustainable relationship that will not only end with this project but will also enable the Japanese cooperation to entrust MINEPIA with more support for other projects earmarked for the future.
Taking the floor at the seminar, the Resident Representative of JICA, Kageyama Tadashi, underscored that there are many projects that will be carried out with MINEPIA but how far the relation will be sustained is proportionate to how well they manage current project. So, the experts will explain the modalities of the technical cooperation to the MINEPIA staff, supply equipment and training of counterparts. Another particularity of the cooperation is that it focuses on capacity building in order to ensure the sustainability of JICA’s intervention and empowerment of its counterparts.
The Ambassador said he is hopeful in the success of the project with MINEPIA because Minister Taïga was once an intern of JICA trained in Ontario Japan. This is a very good example of JICA’s success story, concluded the Japanese diplomat.