The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a Record of Discussions (R/D) with the Government of the Republic of Cameroon on February 17 in Yaounde on the technical cooperation project “Strengthening Corporate Competitiveness through the Deployment of a Comprehensive BDS Delivery System”.
Cameroon has set a target of an average economic growth rate of 8.1% for 2030. Of the private enterprises that are the main drivers of economic growth, 99.8% are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, in addition to traditional issues such as financing, their management has been weakened by market contraction due to the new coronavirus infection, soaring raw material prices due to the situation in Ukraine, and stagnant international logistics. Therefore, improving the management of SMEs and strengthening their competitiveness has become an urgent issue, and JICA has supported the training of 116 public and private sector consultants, mainly in urban areas, who can guide SMEs in quality and productivity improvement and business management through Kaizen (Note 1) / Business Development Services (BDS, Note 2). We will continue to strengthen our organizational structure to further lay the groundwork for the future. In the future, the organization will further strengthen its organizational structure and human resource development as its foundation, and deploy and disseminate its support to regional areas.
This project aims to strengthen the provision of quality kaizen/BDS and to enhance the provision of kaizen/BDS to SMEs by establishing a mechanism for the continuous development of public and private human resources to provide kaizen/BDS throughout Cameroon, developing activities to provide kaizen/BDS nationwide, and sharing the importance of kaizen/BDS to neighboring countries, thereby improving the management and competitiveness of SMEs. This will improve the management and competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises. Through this project, we will contribute to Goal 8 (both job satisfaction and economic growth) and Goal 9 (create a foundation for industrial and technological innovation) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The details of the project are as follows
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