This is how the new provincial development plan (2016-2021) was developed by the APDN, the presentation of which was given during the last extraordinary session of the Tanger-Asilah prefectural council, organized on Thursday, March 10. According to Mounir El Bouyoussfi, Director General of the Agency, the development of this program was carried out in its entirety following a participatory approach integrating all stakeholders, notably the nine rural communes, the three urban communes, and civil society, as well as external services and those of the local authority. The implementation of this program, which will help to overcome development disparities between urban and rural areas, is planned to be "in complementarity with the Tanger-Metropole program", he stressed.
The implementation of this development plan will be carried out in phases. Spanning a period from 2016 to 2018, the first stage of this project requires a budget of 170 million dirhams, of which the APDN contributes 74 million dirhams. The rest of the financing for this plan will be provided by other partners.
"An agreement for this first phase is currently being signed with the objective of starting implementation before the end of the first quarter of 2016", according to APDN officials. Finding its basis in the old communal development plans (PCD), this multi-year program provides for the realization of several targeted projects, essentially aiming at opening up remote and isolated Douars.
"This plan also aims to reduce the vulnerability rate by 3 points, bringing it from 8% to 5% through the strengthening of the associative fabric and the promotion of income-generating activities, but also through the construction of Souks and markets in order to increase the income of the population and the revenues of the rural communes concerned", according to APDN officials.
Speaking on this occasion, the President of the Tanger-Asilah prefectural council, Abdelhamid Aberchane, called for giving more interest to the rural world through the realization of numerous projects, including the opening of new roads and the construction of schools and health centres.