Powering the Mekong with rice husks

As the search for alternate sources of fuel continues in earnest, Vietnamese scientists have found great potential for a source of power in the scourge of the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta rivers – water hyacinths and rice husks. Hoang Vu and Van Dat report.


Big rod of power: Nguyen Van Vu explains the working of a rice-husk-firewood machine. — VNS Photos Le Hoang Vu


Price is right with rice fuel: Cui trau or rice husk wood is easy to burn, releases almost no smoke and causes no pollution.


Husky: Farmers pack rice husks into bags before selling. — VNS Photo Vu Huyen


Basket-case: A farmer carries rice husk from a rice husking factory in Co Do District, Can Tho City to a boat. The husk is being turned into a fuel-rod in the delta.


Useful weed: Water hyacinth being collected in Hau Giang Province. The weed is now used to make handicraft items and generate biogas in the southern provinces.

Flour mill owner Le Minh Truong was struggling with the dramatic increase in coal prices.

The Can Tho City entrepreneur was beginning to wonder if his business would survive when word reached him about scientists in his own neighbourhood producing a new kind of fuel – cui trau (rice husk firewood).

Truong needed no second introduction. "I knew exactly that I needed this material for my business."

Every day now, he makes his way to Hau Giang Province’s Phung Hiep District to buy five or six tonnes of cui trau at VND1,000 per kilogramme for drying flour produced in his factory.

Truong has plenty of company.

Other flour mills, pottery and brick kilns in nearby provinces and HCM City are also sold on the newly invented fuel. Most of them say it is easy to fire, releases almost no smoke and causes no pollution. Fire from the fuel lasts even longer than from coal.

The story of how a waste product from rice farming – that was a headache for rice mills, fishermen and fish breeders in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta – was transformed into a much-sought after fuel, begins with an unknown farmer in Tien Giang Province.

It is known that this used to be a popular source of fuel in South Korea and China before the unknown farmer reinvented the machine that made the "husk firewood".

And like the reinventor, the machine would have languished in relative obscurity were it not for engineers from Can Tho University who bought it and used biogas instead of electricity to operate it.

The waste and weed

With the world plunging from one energy crisis to another, people and governments the world over are seized by the need to source fuel by alternate means.

The Vietnamese government got into the act as well, encouraging projects to exploit biological combustibles to replace traditional firing methods in order to achieve energy security and ensure environmental protection.

Nguyen Phu Cuong, deputy head of Science and Technology department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, says the Government approved a scheme to develop biofuels through 2025.

As a result, biogas generated from animal waste, bio-diesel produced from rice, maize, manioc and sugar cane, or ethanol from tra catfish grease were researched and began to be applied around the country.

However, rice husk and water hyacinth, the waste and the weed found every where in Mekong Delta, fell below the radar.

The delta’s waterways continued to be polluted by the illegal dumping of rice husk and clogged by the floating weed, water hyacinth.

A recent investigation found that rice mills in Hau Giang Province annually release 220,000 tonnes of husk into the water. While farmers in rural areas have known how to use rice husk to cook their meals, they had been discouraged by the time, effort and money needed to carry and store it.

Nguyen Van Don, owner of a rice mill in Dong Thap Province says that before 2004, when ceramic, brick making business used rice husk for firing their kilns, farmers also used it to cook their meals.

Then he did not have to release the husk into the rivers, and was actually able to sell the waste to traders at VND350 a kilogramme. In one season, he could earn VND150 million ($9,375) from the sales.

With the rising popularity of coal, gas and other advanced fuels, rice husk fell out of favour, and he had no choice but to dump them in the water despite knowing that it was illegal, because he had no space to store it.

In An Giang Province, where there are around 1,000 rice mills, the situation is similar. One mill owner, Tran Thanh Hon, recalls that in the past, rice husk traders had to plead to get the waste at VND70,000 ($4.4) per tonne, but now, factory owners cannot find takers even though they are willing to pay people to move it out.

Fish breeders are among the victims of this dumping practice, claiming that the resultant water pollution is killing their fish.

For several years, water hyacinth on Mekong Delta waterways was used to feed livestock or poultry, or making handicraft items, but there was still too much of the floating weed.

Now, with this rediscovery, rice husk and water hyacinth are enjoying a renaissance.

Timely innovation

Nguyen Huu Phong, an engineer from the Hoa An Biological Research Centre under Can Tho University, is one of the team of scientists behind the new machine that makes cui trau from rice husk and water hyacinth.

The machine, costing VND15 million ($937), uses a three horse-power engine to make 80 kilogrammes of the new firewood an hour. Around 105 kilogrammes of rice husk will yield one kilogramme of firewood.

The cylindrical firewood pieces are about 73mm in diameter and 0.5 to one metre long each. One kilogramme of this firewood can be used to cook meals for four people for a whole day. The product is being sold to farmers at VND1,000 per kilogramme. Many people say the price is too expensive for farmers.

But Phong says heat from the new fuel will last longer than that of coal, adding that since the factory opened, many people from central provinces, Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) and HCM City are buying the firewood daily.

Most businesses that used to burn coal to heat their boilers now use cui trau thanks to its reasonable price and higher capacity, not to mention it causes less pollution.

Phong says the centre is not able to meet the demand of enterprises. Many business owners from HCM City consume between seven and eight tonnes a day.

Phong says the plan is to make the prices even lower and increase capacity by transferring the technology to every household in the delta and encourage rice mills to put to good use their waste. Most importantly, the new fuel will help many families save money and reduce the negative impacts of using coal.

Local authorities estimate that the Mekong Delta annually produces some 3.6 million tonnes of rice husk. The need is obvious, therefore, for more machines to process it and present residents and businesses with a cheaper, more environmentally friendly fuel. — VNS

(21-09-2008)

Copyright by Viet Nam News, Vietnam News Agency

website : http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn

It takes just one village to save species

CHONGZUO, China: Long ago, in the poverty-stricken hills of southern China, a village banished its children to the forest to feed on wild fruits and leaves. Years later, when food stores improved, the children's parents returned to the woods to reclaim their young.

To their surprise, their offspring had adapted to forest life remarkably well; the children's white headdresses had dissolved into fur, tails grew from their spines and they refused to come home.

At the Nongguan Nature Reserve in Chongzuo, Guangxi province, the real-life descendants of these mythical children — monkeys known as white-headed langurs — still swing through the forest canopy.

As the langurs traverse a towering karst peak in a setting out of a Chinese landscape painting, they appear untouched by time and change, but it is remarkable that they and their tropical forest home have survived. In 1996, when the langurs were highly endangered, Dr. Pan Wenshi, China's premier panda biologist, came to study them in Chongzuo at what was then an abandoned military base. This was at a time when hunters were taking the canary-yellow young langurs from their cliff-face strongholds, and villagers were leveling the forest for firewood.

Pan quickly hired wardens to protect the remaining animals but then went a step further, taking on the larger social and economic factors jeopardizing the species. Pan recognized the animal's origin myth as legend, but he also believed that alleviating the region's continuing poverty was essential for their long-term survival.

A newborn white-headed langur with its mother at the Chongzuo Ecology Park in China. The langurs, which are born yellow, are thriving here. (Peking University Chongzuo Biodiversity Research Institute )

In the 24-square-kilometer nature reserve where he has focused his studies, the langur population increased to more than 500 today from 96 in 1996.

"It's a model of what can be done in hot-spot areas that have been devastated by development," said Dr. Russell Mittermeier, the president of Conservation International. "Pan has combined all the elements — protection, research, ecotourism, good relations with the local community; he's really turned the langur into a flagship for the region."

Part of what makes Pan's achievements so remarkable is the success he is having compared with the fate of primates elsewhere. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's most recent Red List, nearly half of the world's 634 primate species and subspecies are in danger of extinction. "If you look at the Red List, Asia has by far the highest percentage in the threatened categories," Mittermeier said.

When Pan arrived in Guangxi, the challenges of studying langurs, much less protecting them, seemed insurmountable. He and a student spent their first two years living in collapsing cinder block barracks with no electricity or running water.

At that time, the langur's population was in freefall, dropping from an estimated 2,000 individuals in the late 1980s to fewer than 500 a decade later. Historically, local farmers had occasionally killed langurs for food, but then teams of outside hunters began taking a serious toll on the population.

"In the 1990s, the Chinese economy started booming, and those with money — governors, factory owners, businessmen — all wanted to eat the wildlife to show how powerful they were," said Pan, 71.

A breakthrough in protecting the species came in 1997 when he helped local villagers build a pipeline to secure clean drinking water. Shortly thereafter, a farmer from the village freed a trapped langur and brought it to Pan.

"When you help the villagers, they would like to help you back," he said.

As self-appointed local advocate, Pan raised money for a new school in another village, oversaw the construction of health clinics in two neighboring towns and organized physicals for women throughout the area.

"Now, when outsiders try to trap langurs," Pan said, "the locals stop them from coming in."

But the villagers were still dependent on the reserve's trees for fuel.

"If I told them they can't cut down the trees, that wouldn't be right," Pan said. "They have to feed their families."

In 2000, he received a $12,500 environmental award from Ford Motor Company. He used the money to build biogas digesters — concrete-lined pits that capture methane gas from animal waste — to provide cooking fuel for roughly 1,000 people.

Based on the project's success, the federal government financed a sevenfold increase in construction of tanks to hold biogas. Today, 95 percent of the population living just outside the reserve burn biogas in their homes.

As a result, the park's number and diversity of trees — the langurs' primary habitat and sole food source — has increased significantly.

"When I first came, the hillsides were very rocky," Pan said. "Now it's hard to see the rocks and even harder to see the langurs because of all the trees."

www.iht.com

By Phil Mckenna Published: September 23, 2008 ________________

Catastrophic fall in numbers reveals bird populations in crisis throughout the world

The birds of the world are in serious trouble, and common species are in now decline all over the globe, a comprehensive new review suggests today.

From the turtle doves of Europe to the vultures of India, from the bobwhite quails of the US to the yellow cardinals of Argentina, from the eagles of Africa to the albatrosses of the Southern Ocean, the numbers of once-familiar birds are tumbling everywhere, according to the study from the conservation partnership BirdLife International.

Their falling populations are compelling evidence of a rapid deterioration in the global environment that is affecting all life on earth – including human life, BirdLife says in its report, State of The World's Birds.

The report, released today with an accompanying website at the BirdLife World Conservation Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, identifies many key global threats, including the intensification of industrial-scale agriculture and fishing, the spread of invasive species, logging, and the replacement of natural forest with monocultural plantations.

It goes on to suggest that in the long term, human-induced climate change may be the most serious stress.

Based in Cambridge, BirdLife International is a global alliance of conservation organisations working in more than 100 countries and territories which is now the leading authority on the status of birds, their habitats and the issues and problems affecting them.

When brought together, as in its new report, the regional pictures of bird declines combine to present a startling picture of a whole class of living things on a steep downward slope.

A remarkable 45 per cent of common European birds are declining, with the familiar European turtle dove, for example, having lost 62 per cent of its population in the last 25 years, while on the other side of the globe, resident Australian wading birds have seen population losses of 81 per cent in the same period.

Twenty common North American birds have more than halved in number in the last four decades, while in Asia, the millions of white-rumped vultures which once filled the skies have crashed by 99.9 per cent and the species is now critically endangered.

"Many of these birds have been a familiar part of our everyday lives, and people who would not necessarily have noticed other environmental indicators have seen their numbers slipping away, and are wondering why," said Dr Mike Rands, BirdLife's chief executive.

All the world's governments have committed themselves to slowing or halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010, but reluctance to commit what are often trivial sums in terms of national budgets means that this target is almost certain to be missed, according to the report.

"Birds provide an accurate and easy-to-read environmental barometer, allowing us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life are putting on the world's biodiversity," Dr Rands said.

"Because these creatures are found almost everywhere on earth, they can act as our eyes and ears, and what they are telling us is that the deterioration in biodiversity and the environment is accelerating, not slowing.

"Effective biodiversity conservation is easily affordable, requiring relatively trivial sums at the scale of the global economy. For example, to maintain the protected area network which would safeguard 90 percent of Africa's biodiversity would cost less than $1bn a year. Yet in a typical year, the global community provides about $300m.

"The world is failing in its 2010 pledge. The challenge is to harness international biodiversity commitments and ensure that concrete actions are taken now."

The State of the World's Birds report can be found at www.birdlife.org/sowb

By Michael McCarthy
Monday, 22 September 2008

Women to rule Rwanda parliament

Women voters in Rwanda

Rwanda already holds the world record for highest proportion of female MPs

Rwanda will be the first country where women will outnumber men in parliament, preliminary election results show.

Women have taken 44 out of 80 seats so far and the number could rise if three seats reserved for the disabled and youth representatives go to females.

Rwanda, whose post-genocide constitution ensures a 30% quota for female MPs, already held the record for the most women in parliament.

The ruling party coalition won 78% of seats in Monday's vote.

Indirect elections for women's quota seats took place on Tuesday and votes for two youth representatives and a disabled quota seat are taking place on Wednesday and Thursday.

It is the second parliamentary elections since the genocide of 1994 when some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days.

80-SEAT PARLIAMENT
Elected seats: 53
* RPF: 42 seats, 78.76% of the vote
* Social Democratic Party: 7 seats, 13.12% of the vote
* Liberal Party: 4 seats, 7.5% of the vote
Quota seats: 27 (women 24, youth 2, disabled 1)
Women total: 44 seats, 55% of parliament
Preliminary results Rwanda National Electoral Commission

President Paul Kagame was instrumental in establishing the Tutsi-led 's Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) - the rebel force which took power and ended the genocide.

The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, says the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party have conceded defeat.

In the outgoing parliament, 48.8% of MPs were women - the world's highest rate. It is now set to be at least 55%.

Women who stood in seats reserved for female candidates were not allowed to represent a party.

"The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves," voter Anne Kayitesi told the BBC's Focus on Africa.

"You see men, especially in our culture, men used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children... but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better."

site : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7620816.stm

Profitable waste

An environmental project in the Mekong Delta is set to make things a little easier for farmers – and the environment.

Nguyen Van Vu, who is in charge of Hoa An Center’s electricity,
displays the husk firewood produced by the pressing machine.

Rice husks and water hyacinths have long been considered waste material in the Mekong Delta.

However, opinions of these products are changing after a joint project (Project VIE/020) with the Luxembourg government was launched to recycle agricultural waste and put water hyacinths to work to help the local economy.

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia Crassipes) causes headaches for local farmers by impeding river transport, decreasing local biodiversity and carrying germs.

Water hyacinths. A project in the MekongDelta
is looking for ways to make use of thecommon water weed pest.

“The water hyacinth can cause disaster if we do not know how to use it, but if we know what to do we can find beneficial uses for it,” said Dr. Do Ngoc Quynh, technical consultant to Project VIE/020.

Project researchers have managed to use hyacinths and other agricultural waste in the production of breeding fish, mushrooms and fish food, said Pham Hong Thai, director of the project management board, at the opening ceremony of the Hoa An Center for Research – Application – Biodiversity.

The center, based in the Mekong Delta’s An Giang Province, is devoted to the project.

Hyacinth extract can help increase the pH (the measure of acidity or alkalinity) of water from 3.2 to 4.5, creating an ideal environment for chlorella algae, the food of some native fish species.

Researchers have also made fertilizers and bio-gas from water hyacinth for local families, Thai said.

About 2,340 farmers in Hau Giang Province have a monthly income of less than VND300,000 (US$18.33) and no land.

They are expected to receive training on how to use agricultural waste like rice husks and hyacinths to improve their income, Quynh said.

The center’s experts will train 450 farmers in the method of processing hyacinths and bio-gas, Quynh said.

A further 1,800 people will be trained in seafood and agriculture farming methods.

“Once it is successful, the project will make a considerable contribution to the transformation of problematic hyacinths into something socio-economically effective in Hau Giang Province in particular and the Mekong Delta in general,” Thai said.

Another source of fuel

The center also introduced husk firewood made from rice husks by a VND15 million ($916.65) pressing machine bought from the southern Tien Giang Province.

The presser is able to produce 70 to 80 kilograms of firewood per hour and consumes around 6 to 7 kilowatts an hour.

Every 1.05 kilograms of husks produces one kilogram of firewood, which is sufficient for cooking a meal for four.

Husk firewood has the diameter of 73 millimeters and the length of 21 centimeters.

Hoa An Center for Research, Application and Biodiversity engineer Phong said husk firewood burnt at a slower pace than husks or charcoal and could be used to cook any kind of food.

It is even suitable for grilling, he said.

Tran Thanh Chac, who lives in the Hoa An Commune, said husk firewood was easy to use.

The most important factor is that the firewood is completely burnt, leaving no waste.

It also has a sweet fragrance.

Other families nearby the center have also given positive feedback about the husk firewood.

However, after the trial period, they have yet to buy the firewood, since their own firewood is easily accessed in the garden.

The price of VND1,000 ($0.06) per kilogram, meanwhile, is not good, according to Truong, who lives in Can Tho City and buys around five to six tons of husk firewood per day for his business.

Phong, meanwhile, says this is just a trial price, adding that the center will transfer the technology to those families who have the need to use it.

The important thing was to encourage rice milling factories to buy the machine to make firewood from rice husks, he said.

It will help tackle the overwhelming amount of rice husks and bring benefits to them.

The three-year-project was started in 2006 with €5 million (US$7.4million) in sponsorship from the Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation to help local farmers improve their incomes.

Source: TBKTSG, SGTT
Reported by Phu Sa Loc - Gia Khiem
Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 28 August, 2008, 11:18:10 (GMT+7)

Hospitality training course opens registration

The Lao National TourismAdministration (LNTA) and the government of Luxembourg on Friday made available application forms to the public for participation in a training of trainers course in hospitality and tourism. The government of Luxembourg has funded the recently launched LAO/020 project, which seeks to assist the Lao hospitality and tourism industry through the LNTA by strengthening human resources to support the burgeoning Lao tourism industry.

A critical element of the project is to build a National Tourism and Hospitality Training Centre in Vientiane which will become the centre of best practice in hospitality and tourism training in Laos.The project hopes to open the training centre in 2010.

“We welcome all applications from people interested in becoming teachers or trainers in hospitality, whether in hotel and restaurant services, as chefs, or in other areas,” the Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation Hospitality training course opens registration Chief Technical Advisor, Mr Peter Semone, said at a pressconference held at the LNTA on Friday.



He explained they would select 60 applicants for a one week hospitality and training skills workshop in Vientiane in November. Then the project would select the best 20-25 trainees from the course to train those who attended subsequent courses.

“We need trainees who are genuinely interested in the hospitality and tourism industry, so we will select the only the best,” Mr Semone explained.

The project will also offer courses in intensive English language training in January 2009, in technical skills in hospitality at the Alexis Heck Hotel School in Luxembourg in mid-2009, and hotel management programmes in leading Asian hospitality and tourism schools from 2009-2010. The project may also invite candidates to participate in higher degree programmes in 2010 and beyond.

“In support of the training centre, the project will recruit 20 outstanding individuals to become part of the training centre’s core team. Successful applicants will be invited to participate in a long term training and development programme which will culminate in employment at thetraining centre in 2010,” Mr Semone said.

Mr Semone said he believed the centre would be the best place to upgrade Lao services to match the needs of the increasing number of tourists visiting the country each year. The LNTA reported that 1.7 million visitors visited Laos last year, more than in previous years. Mr Semone said half of the tourists were from European or Western countries so Laos needed to upgrade the quality of services and tourism facilities on offer. “The training centre will play an important role in supporting the development of skills and experience in this sector.”

Formation professionnelle à Podor

FORMATION PROFESSIONNELLE A PODOR : Vers une insertion des élèves sortants

Les Centres et établissements de formation professionnelle viennent de franchir un nouveau palier avec la deuxième phase du Plan indicatif de coopération (PIC 2). L’insertion après la formation des élèves sortants de leurs établissements est désormais au cœur des préoccupations.

La synergie de trois agences du système des Nations Unies que sont le Bit, l’Onudi et le Pnud avait, au mois de juin 2008, dans la capitale du nord, organisé un atelier d’échanges et d’information sur les rôles et responsabilités des cellules d’insertion au sein des Centres de formation professionnelle des régions de Saint-Louis, Louga et Matam.

L’objet était de doter de ressources humaines ayant des aptitudes et compétences spécifiques pour prendre en charge l’insertion des sortants.

L’Onudi, à travers son antenne de la région de Saint-Louis, a organisé, pendant trois jours, un atelier de renforcement des capacités des cellules d’insertion au centre technique féminin de Podor, au profit des agents des centres de Dagana, Richard-Toll et Podor. « Cela pour favoriser l’appui à l’insertion des sortants, échanger sur la problématique des cellules et arriver à déposer un programme qui puisse renforcer les capacités des formés de ces établissements », souligne l’expert de l’Onudi de St-Louis, Ibrahima Ndiaye. Il soutient que les concernés doivent, chacun dans son domaine respectif, pouvoir rendre pérenne l’insertion des sortants desdits établissements.

Le grand Duché de Luxembourg avait, dans le Pic1, mis l’accent sur les infrastructures et la logistique adaptée à la formation professionnelle. Avec le Pic2, il va plus loin.

L’inspection départementale se réjouit du partenariat avec le Grand Duché de Luxembourg « qui a montré toute sa disposition de venir épauler la formation professionnelle ». Un large éventail des cours dispensés dans ces centres va déboucher sur un emploi après formation. La formation technique est le passage obligé des pays émergents.

Amadou Diagne NIANG - Le Soleil du mardi 19 août 2008

Luxembourg - Sénégal

LUXEMBOURG-SENEGAL : 650 millions Fcfa à des collectivités locales du nord

Le Luxembourg, par le biais de son programme Lux Développement, est venu en aide aux régions de Saint-Louis, Louga et Matam. Une enveloppe de 650 millions de Fcfa a été dégagée.

Dans ce cadre, Massiré Thiaré, assistant technique en hygiène et assainissement de Lux Développement, était à Podor à la tête d’une équipe de son service pour dérouler avec les autorités communales et médicales le Programme Sen O.25. Ce programme, a dit M. Thiaré, « ambitionne la réduction de la mortalité infanto-juvénile dans les régions de Saint-Louis, Louga, Matam et la communauté rurale de Darou-Mousty ». Concernant la commune de Podor, qui est l’une des villes les plus propres du Sénégal, Lux Développement est venu l’appuyer pour la création d’une filière de gestion des ordures ménagères. « C’est le même travail que nous avons effectué dans la région de Matam avec les unions communautaires et les services techniques de la région », a souligné M. Thiaré. C’est le même travail qui s’est déroulé avec la municipalité de Podor, le service d’hygiène et les délégués des comités des six quartiers de la ville. Avec cet appui, ces collectivités seront dotées de tracteurs, de tonnes à lisier et de tout matériel lié à la propreté.

« Le projet Lux Développement entend travailler avec les représentants des populations pour un changement de comportement. Nous voulons, à travers ces différends contacts, identifier les personnes ressources, car le travail que nous menons nécessite une conscience citoyenne, une conscience environnementale qui nécessite la formation de la population pour que ce projet aboutisse », a confié le chef de la mission. Le chef de délégation a remercié le maire de Podor, Oumar Mbengue, qui « s’est beaucoup investi pour le bon déroulement de l’opération ».

Amadou Diagne NIANG

Sénégal - Luxembourg Formation

Les entreprises invitées à accompagner la réforme de l'enseignement technique

Saint-Louis, 18 août (APS) – Un cadre rappelle aux entreprises sénégalaises leur intérêt à accompagner la réforme en cours dans le domaine de l'enseignement technique et de la formation professionnelle.

''Les entreprises ont tout à gagner en accompagnant la réforme entreprise dans le domaine de l'enseignement technique et de la formation technique'', a déclaré le directeur du centre de formation de la Compagnie sucrière sénégalaise (CSS).

Fansou Diédhiou s'exprimait à la fin d'un atelier de partage sur la réforme de l'enseignement technique et la formation professionnelle, organisé récemment par la coopération luxembourgeoise, dans le cadre de son deuxième programme de coopération avec le Sénégal.

En effet, estime-t-il, ces entreprises au lieu d'aller débaucher des produits dans d'autres secteurs spécialisés ou de recourir à l'expertise installée à l'étranger, peuvent aider les centres de formation en les appuyant financièrement dans l'objectif de mieux outiller leur pensionnaire.

Il soutient que ces entreprises ont plus à gagner en ayant recours à cette expertise formée sur place et moins coûteuse que de payer très cher des cabinets pour des travaux que de jeunes bien formés auraient pu assumer.

Fansou Diédhiou a affirmé que son entreprise va explorer cette voie et montre, d'ailleurs, une ouverture vis-à-vis des futurs stagiaires qu'elle est prête à accueillir jusqu'à concurrence de 200 étudiants en raison d'une rotation étalée sur 90 jours.

Il s'est dit favorable à accompagner les écoles de formation qui peuvent être profitables aux entreprises lesquelles pourraient y envoyer leurs agents dans le cadre de la formation continue.

Selon lui, les modes de recrutement dans les entreprises ont sensiblement changé : là où on prenait le fils d'une connaissance ou d'un parent, les entreprises font appel à la compétence suivant en cela la voie tracée par les multinationales soucieuses de réaliser de bons résultats.

Le secteur l'enseignement technique et de la formation professionnelle est engagée dans un processus de réforme déclinée dans le document de politique issu des Assises nationales sectorielles, dans le but d'en faire un levier pour le développement économique. Le défi de la réforme est dans la mise en œuvre.

Présidant la cérémonie d'ouverture de cet atelier, le directeur de cabinet du ministre de l'Enseignement technique et de la Formation professionnelle, Alioune Badara Wagué, avait souligné que la réforme demeure méconnue par les différents acteurs du secteur.

Il a salué ainsi cette initiative de la vulgariser. Le choix de Saint-Louis d'abriter une telle rencontre après Louga et Matam et prochainement Thiès s'inscrit, selon lui, dans une démarche de proximité qui vise à mieux s'approcher de la cible.

Amad Mouslim DIBA - Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (APS) - 18-08-2008 18:18 GMT