CDC GM made a very major announcement to the pressmen during the early morning briefing. “I also wish to let you know that we are going to start a new banana development by CDC in January.
This is in response, again, to directives from the state. So we are going to participate in the increase of the Cameroon banana production to move the current national production from its present 250,000 tons to 400,000 tons in the next there to four years. CDC is playing a leading role in the activity.
From next month, it is not far away from now; we shall start the work to develop 1750 hectares of bananas in three years; 500 of which we intend to plant in April next year. So there is a lot of work for many people. We also believe that will help reduce crime and help put some money in some needy people’s pockets”.
He said the corporation is going to pursue an aggressive marketing policy to push the CDC banana label in the very competitive international banana market.“ I will invite you, sometime in February to visit the new development of the CDC banana, because what is going to happen is that the banana will reach the market with CDC Cameroon label. That is it will be CDC Banana. If you are buying it in France or Germany, it will read CDC Banana. We are going to put in place a very aggressive marketing team to make sure our bananas are sold”.
Open Door
The GM then went on to elaborate why he has ultimately opened the corporation to the prying eyes and sharp ears of the press. “The management of this corporation is conscious of the fact that it belongs to the state and so we try to do every bit to let the owners of the corporation have as much direct information as possible. This is because we believe that lack of information gives room to doubts, speculations and rumours”.
The GM added that “for the past ten years that I have been here, I have insisted to all my colleagues that we should have an ‘Open Door Policy.’ It is true that the truth hurts. It is true that somebody who does not find favour in some other person is not liked by the person. I consider you partners in development. If I did not consider you as partners, I will be running this thing ‘closed door.’ It will not make any sense.
Bold Step
On why the current ambitious projects, hear the GM, “we took a bold step last year to expand the activities of this corporation because the time was right, we had covered a lot of grounds: we had cleared a lot of internal debts in the corporation such as social insurance, taxation…we don’t owe any bank any money. We don’t owe arrears of salaries. We are up to date in many things”.
“In order to give CDC the life span it needs, we must go ahead. Industrial Agriculture is not an urban activity. 30 years ago, Limbe was an agricultural town. But today it is not. And so the few plantations you see around here will disappear in the next 25 years or 30. And so if we don’t redesign CDC, if we don’t relocate, CDC will fade out. Also, because CDC has to be privatized, like any body whose daughter has to be given out for a wedding, would not want to put the child out with a wound on the fore head. He would want to make the child look as beautiful and as healthy as possible. We would want to give CDC a very solid economic stand so that whosoever is coming to bargain for it, if he has to do that, the price will be very high”.
“We are recruiting and training young men and women to run the Corporation. And we launched these programmes, programmes of four and five years at the end of which we must have created not less than 6000 jobs, he re-iterated.
The Sun
