(Business in Cameroon) - According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in Cameroon from 2000 to 2014 reached 5 billion dollars (2,750 billion FCA)

This FDI mostly originates from France, United States, Nigeria and of course, China, which has become Cameroon’s first investor according to the Directorate of Cooperation of Ministry of Economy. As a matter of facts, taking into consideration China’s projects portfolio estimated at 1,850 billion FCFA at the end of 2014, the Middle Kingdom holds about 67% of Cameroon’s FDI inflows.

In this year 2015 however, China’s investment in Cameroon should considerably increase with the implementation of projects such as that for the interconnection of state universities or more importantly that for the construction of new infrastructures (500 Km-long railway, Iron ore terminal of Kribi deep water port) related to the project for the exploitation of Mbalam’s Iron deposit in Eastern Cameroon.

Truly, Sundance Resources which is carrying out this project through its local subsidiary Cam Iron, announced in June 2015 it reached an agreement with Cameroon’s government that allows China to fund Cameroon’s construction projects that require a funding ranging from 1,500 to 2,000 billion FCFA. In respect to this, Cameroon’s Prime Minister signed on July 13, 2015, a decree announcing the “establishment, organization, and operation of a special committee dedicated to the selection of a Chinese company to carry out the projects for the construction of railway and Mbalam’s Iron-ore terminal, but also to expand the Dja mining site”.

By winning Cameroon’s most significant construction projects (Deep water port at Kribi, dams at Lomp Pangar, Memve’élé and Mekin, fiber optic, Yaoundé-Douala and Yaoundé-Nsimalen motorways...), China strengthens its position in the country’s mining sector, where it has been active for a few years through Sinosteel which currently heads the Iron project near Kribi, in the South.

Brice R. Mbodiam