Cameroon: A cream of business gurus across the globe meeting in Yaounde. (images)

A cream of business gurus from across the globe are meeting in Yaounde from today at the behest of President Paul Biya to see where best to invest their money.

After several visits abroad like Britain and America and the dispatch of emissaries to market the Cameroon’s economic opportunities to investors, President Paul Biya has convened a high-profile meeting of Chief Executive Officers, CEOs, in Yaounde. The aim is to let them see firsthand and discuss avenues for boosting the economy through investments.


 
The meeting, which opens today 17 May 2016, ends tomorrow. It offers a unique opportunity for government officials to tell the President’s guests where they can put their finances and be sure of making profits while providing employment to the many young graduates who now flood the job market each year.
Meeting on the theme, “Investing in Cameroon, Land of Attractiveness,” high-profile guests and government officials will have to look at the growth prospects of the country, analyse the contribution of the private sector and give their opinion on how best to move forward. Coming six years after the Yaounde 21 International
 
Conference which the Head of State convened to mark 50 years of the Unitary State of Cameroon, the current event is obviously another step towards offering concrete meaning to the economic commitments taken by Mr Biya to make his present tenure of office one of economic growth for Cameroon.
It is probably in this light that the business magnets will be delving into topics like the macroeconomic situation in Cameroon, prospects for growth; the role of the private sector in the economic development of Africa; the role of the private sector in the economic development of Cameroon; the financial attractiveness of Cameroon; and the digital economy in relation to growth.

Apart from the business-to-business (B to B) forum that will hold on the last day of the gathering, there are also plans for concrete resolutions to be reached on crucial domains like energy, transport and urban development, agriculture and the Information and Communications Technologies. Such an outcome will equally be an occasion to boost the business climate in Cameroon that has been so challenging for some years now.
Addressing French employers at the Cameroon-France Economic Forum in Paris on 31 January 2013, President Paul Biya pointed out that “I urge you to seize today’s opportunities of participating in developing tomorrow’s Cameroon.” The initiative has continued with successive holding of the Cameroon Business Forum in the economic hub of the country, Douala, chaired by the Prime Minister, Head of Government. The Yaounde International Conference is obviously another endeavour to foster the same agenda.

With keynote speakers like; Manuel Barroso, Chung Un-Chan, Donald Kaberuka, Pascal Lamy, Aliko Dangote, Paul Fokam Kammogne, Arthur Zang, as well as major business managers as Daniel Cohen, Pascal Lamy, Acha Leke, Mohamed El Kettani, Nino Njopkou and Tony Elumelu, attending the conference, the Head of State definitely wants to ensure that the building blocks of an emergent Cameroon by 2035 are well in place.

The other unquestionable factor which the country counts on is its strategic position not just as “Africa in miniature,” but also as a country located in a covetous site in the Central African Sub-region with a potential market of nearly 350 million inhabitants. This takes into consideration neighboring countries like the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

Added to this is the natural and human resources that exist in the country. The close to 500 delegates who include economic operators, government officials and representatives of international development institutions as well as business leaders and financiers, are certainly going to provide concrete solutions to the country’s growth ambitions.


Cameroon Tribune (part of content)