Madagascar : CDE launches SME training seminars for the road maintenance programme
Launched in April 2008, the programme in support of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and professional associations of the road maintenance sector in Madagascar, has selected twenty eligible companies out of a total of thirty-one candidates. The eligible companies were assembled in Antananarivo in mid-September on the CDE’s initiative, alongside the European commission’s delegation in the country, and the Ministry of Public Works and Meteorology.
The programme in support of SMEs and professional associations of the road maintenance sector is due to last eighteen months. It will be implemented in coordination with the Road Maintenance Fund (Fonds d’entretien routier - FER), Malagasy road authority ARM (Autorité routière malgache), AGETIPA (Agence d’exécution des travaux d’intérêt public), FID (Fonds d’intervention pour le développement) and the SSATP (Sub Saharan Africa Transport Policy). ININFRA (Institut national de l’infrastructure) and INSCAE (Institut national des sciences comptables et d’administration d’entreprise) were closely associated with the programme’s operational activities.
The training seminars for the selected SMEs are due to start on 30 September 2008 and will deal with companies’ internal and external environments, managements techniques, including human and material resource management, and business plan methods to obtain funding for modernization or development. These will be followed up with individual coaching.
The objective is to improve the performance of Malagasy SMEs and generate a positive impact for their market share, turnover and investments.
The local coordination office, located on the premises of ININFRA, is working in parallel on the second aspect of the programme, which deals with capacity building for road-maintenance professional associations, in order to enable them to provide a better service to their member companies, and to formulate, within a private-public dialogue, proposals to better integrate SMEs in the context of future road maintenance procurement.
The first seminars for professional associations are planned for March 2009.