King Mohammed VI, who is on a friendly and working visit to the Republic of Congo, held tête-à-tête talks with President Sassou N’guesso in Brazzaville on Monday (April 30).
The two Heads of State later on proceeded to the launch of the construction works of a fishing unloading site at the port of Yoro in Brazzaville, a project that falls in line with the Moroccan Sovereign’s Africa-oriented strategy and his efforts to upgrade South-South cooperation.
The project translates the close and privileged ties binding Morocco and the Congo and the two parties’ shared ambition to consolidate their cooperation in the fisheries sector, the preservation of sea resources and the protection of the marine environment. The new facility is also meant to upgrade small-scale fisheries, and improve the living and working conditions of the artisanal fishing community in the central African country.
The fishing unloading facility, worth 30 million dirhams, stretches over a surface area of 1.7 hectare of which 2,250 square meters will serve for fisheries handling, conditioning and marketing purposes.
The project will be endowed with state of the art equipment, including a fish hall, ice factories, cold-storage rooms, shops, a boat repair workshop, as well as medical dispensaries and daycare centers to help mothers working in the fishing sector. Actually, besides the about 500 artisanal fishermen to benefit from the facility, there are 600 women wholesalers and 3,000 women fishmonger-retailers
The new facility will help create new jobs and develop micro-poles to combat poverty, optimize the economic performance of small-scale fisheries, increase beneficiaries’ incomes and improve working and sanitary conditions, the objective being sustainable and integrated human development.
The project, to be completed within 24 months, illustrates Morocco’s determination to support the economic and social development of the Republic of Congo, in the context of a win-win partnership, as well as its desire to diversify and expand the scope of cooperation, and implement innovative instruments through which the Kingdom shares with African countries its expertise in wealth and employment- generating sectors.
