The 5th edition of the National Days of Social Economy was officially launched on Tuesday the 26th of October 2021, at the Yaounde Town Hall by Minister Achille BASSILEKIN III, Personal Representative of the Prime Minister, Joseph DION NGUTE. Under the theme: “Competitiveness of Social Economy Units and regional development in the light of the NDS-30”, this edition aims at highlighting the importance of Social Economy Units (SEUs) within the context of the structural transformation of the economy in order to foster regional development.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the representative of the Mayor of Yaounde earmarked that the exchange of experience is a booster to the collaboration between local councils and social economy actors for local development and a transformed structural development of Cameroon. It should be noted that the Ministry of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts has for the past year, undertaken to school local authorities in this light.
The Mayor’s words were thus not far-fetched as Minister Achille BASSILEKIN III affirmed: “we are going to come up with a road map that will indicate what kind of synergy should be put in place to optimize the transfer of resources the State is really injecting in the local communities, these Social Economy Units…to ensure that they become actors of local development at the council level and it is in that perspective that we are going to come up with sound recommendations”.
The opening ceremony was attended by members of the diplomatic corps, members of government, local authorities and social economy actors. A ceremony which paved the way for the inaugural lecture on this year’s theme and two thematic presentations on: “Regional Development and Competitiveness of SEUs: which Synergy of actions should be set up among various players?” and “Development of Sectors, Value Chains and Productivity of SEUs in the Regions” respectively. With more thematic presentations and workshops slated for Day-2, the forum is expected to run till Thursday 28 October, 2021with a validation of the recommendations made.