Opened on Monday 28 September 2020, in PAK premises, the meeting on preparing the 2021 Annual Budgeted Workplan (PTAB) focuses on the actions of the Kribi Socioeconomic Programme (PASEK), in implementing the “Agricultural belt around Kribi” initiative. During the week, proceedings will be presided over by the General Manager of PAK, Patrice MELOM, flanked with its collaborators among which the Technical Advisor No.4, Stéphane TAGNE SIMO and the Head of the Directorate of Environment, Sustainable Development and Relations with Riparian Communities, RIWOM A MOUBEKE. Other participants include a dozen of national and international organisations, services providers, officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the agricultural mogul Tony OBAM. These beautiful minds are pondering on the actions, activities, resources and opportunities to plan for 2021.

The respective contributions of PAK partners in this agricultural project are pivotal. They range from setting up excellence centres of agricultural production, to training producers, providing access to market, mobilizing resources, setting up digital platforms to sell produces. Through this agricultural aspect of PASEK, PAK wants first to assert its position as corporate citizen by encouraging modern agricultural practices that create jobs and resources which contribute to improving the living conditions of rural areas. Secondly, PAK will contribute to developing growth sectors with high added value to exports (soyabean, corn, cocoa, tomato, poultry, plantain, etc.) and for which the Port of Kribi will serve as natural outlet.

It has been observed that five concerns guide the development of the 2021 action plan: the producer and his market, the effective start-up of at least two modern production units, referred to here as excellence centres, the desire for stakeholders to create and strengthen ties between them and the desire of producers to streamline the mechanisms for the reimbursement of subsidies. By promoting a synergy of actions, mainly with organisations, most of which have already been working for several years to support the rural populations of the Ocean Division, Patrice MELOM seized the opportunity to reaffirm the commitment of his company in actively taking part in raising the profile of agriculture in order to ultimately bring up a new generation of agricultural entrepreneurs who will make the Ocean Division an agricultural hub in Cameroon.