(Business in Cameroon) - The Monitoring Committee for the 9^th EMA Invest Forum held on October 3-4, 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland, an event for which Cameroon was the guest of honour, is arranging a business and investment trip to Cameroon from September 24 to 27.

“Cameroon is a country that is particularly important for this forum as it possesses a relatively attractive financial foundation (very little debt, quality workforce, stability and so on). It also has a lot of potential in all three raw material groups – agriculture, mining and energy. Beyond the visibility it provides, its status as guest of honour will enable specific business meetings to be arranged,” stated Yasmine Bahri Domon, president of the EMA Foundation and organiser of the said forum when explaining Cameroon’s selection as guest of honour.

Following this business meeting devoted to Cameroon, which had gathered 150 participants, including 50 Swiss companies, the business trip arranged by the monitoring committee aims not only to evaluate and even increase the progress of the projects announced at the forum, but also to ensure “the sound development of relations between Swiss entrepreneurs, economic players and the local authorities.”

Several projects lined up

Among the outcomes of the 9^th EMA Invest Forum, one can cite the announcement made by the president of the Addax & Oryx Group, Jean-Claude Gandur, about his desire to make in Cameroon, the investment in biofuels (267 million euros in investment) that he already successfully made in Sierra Leone; one that will enable the production of 100,000 tonnes of ethanol by the end of the year. At the same time, Arborescence Capital was committed to developing a 50 MW project in solar energy and 50 MW in windmills.

Other contacts were made to connect the Cameroonian micro-financial sector to specialised Swiss investment funds such as Symbiotics or Swiss Mining Resources, to develop the Cameroonian mining sector. In the new technologies sector, the prestigious Californian university, UCLA, plans to build a campus and research centre in Cameroon. The Polytechnic Institute of Lausanne (EPFL) plans to create an incubator for energy start-ups, to be used in the health sector in particular.

Created in 1998 by a group of Genevese professionals from the economic press community, the EMA Foundation, with its main vista being EMA Invest, is an entity that “seeks to provide developing countries with better access to capitals, markets, technologies and international media” while also handling “the communication, networking and economic promotion of governments and institutions from the South.”

For its work in this area, the EMA Foundation has received the support of numerous Swiss and international companies and institutions, including the World Bank, Secrétariat suisse à l'économie, Forum francophone des Affaires, the Swiss-Africa Chamber of Commerce, Genève Place Financière, SGS, lGroupe de Presse AGEFI and The Financial Times.