Press release following the cabinet meeting held yesterday at the Prime Minister’s Office.

«Under the distinguished chair of Mr Philemon YANG, Prime Minister, Head of Government, an important Cabinet Meeting was held today (yesterday) Monday, 31 May 2010 as from 11:00 a.m. in the main building of the Prime Minister’s Office. In attendance were the Vice-Prime Minister in charge of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministers of State, Ministers, Ministers-Delegate, Secretaries of State as well as his close aides.

Three items featured on the agenda, namely:

1. the statement of the Minister for Forestry and Wildlife on: “Government’s Reforestation Strategy”;

2. the statement of the Ministers for Secondary Education and Basic Education on: “the Implementation of the National School Textbook and Teaching Aids Policy”; and

3. the statement of the Minister for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, the Social Economy and Handicrafts on “the Assessment of Government’s Strategy to set up small and medium-sized enterprises”.

Taking the floor after the preliminary remarks of the Head of Government, the Minister in charge of forestry indicated that the implementation of Government’s reforestation strategy made it possible to replant 37,621 hectares of forests throughout the national territory until 2003 by virtue of the 20 January 1994 forestry law and the creation of specialized State-owned bodies. Narrowed down into the 2006 national reforestation strategy, it enabled an additional 20,706 hectares of forests to be replanted. to which will be added 15,000 hectares by 2012.

To conclude, the Minister announced a far-reaching urban and peri-urban forestry programme aimed at promoting neighbourhood eco-tourism. Its first phase will see the creation of a green belt in Yaounde and its surrounding areas.

At the end of the ensuing discussions, the Prime Minister enjoined the Minister for Forestry and Wildlife to earmark each year at least one-third of the resources of the Special Forestry Development Fund for reforestation activities and to resort to international funding initiatives like Carbon Credits or the Clean Development Mechanism, to support the national effort in this domain.

Next, the Cabinet Meeting listened to the two complementary statements of the Ministers for Secondary and Basic Education on the national school textbook policy which revealed that this instrument was being drafted, based on the recommendation of the National Education Forum of May 1995 and the principles outlined in the Governmental Declaration on school textbooks and teaching aids of 26 May 2000. Pending its finalization, an institutional arrangement is already operational, as attested by the setting up of the National Council on the approval of textbooks, the setting up of documentation and information centres in schools and the subsidized sale of some teaching/learning aids. In the meantime, the Government is striving to enhance the efficiency of our education system, by making school textbooks a powerful vector of cardinal human values and thus make them more available and affordable. Thus, Government has distributed 1,183,285 textbooks to pupils/students and teachers in priority education zones.

At the end of discussions that followed these statements, the Head of Government encouraged the development of real synergy among all stakeholders in the textbook production, distribution and end-user chain in order to implement this policy. He asked the Ministers in charge of secondary and basic education to streamline book distribution procedures in priority zones, design and implement a plan for the development of documentation and information centres in school, ensuring the incorporation therein of measures aimed at encouraging more national publishers to produce better quality textbooks. He instructed the Minister for Basic Education to submit, latest on 31 July, the report of the deliberations of the committee set up to reflect on the national school textbook policy.

Speaking last, the Minister in charge of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) gave account of the achievements of Government’s strategy in this sector, illustrated by the enactment of the law of 13 April 2010 on the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the satisfactory setting up of two pilot business set-up centres in Yaounde and Douala, which host one-stop shops for business set-up, transformation and winding-up formalities.

The Head of Government instructed the Minister in charge of SMEs to (i) expedite the drafting of the implementing instruments of the SME law, (ii) ensure wide dissemination, within the country and abroad, of the facilities and services offered by pilot centres for business-set-up formalities and lastly, (iii) accelerate the putting in place of the first regional units for the processing and conservation of local products.

At the request of the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Transport gave an account of the fatal accident of 29 May 2010 at Kon-Yambetta on the Yaounde-Bafoussam Highway causing some thirty deaths. After roundly deploring this tragic accident, the Head of Government instructed the Minister of State in charge of Transports to promptly open an administrative investigation to establish the facts and assign responsibilities.