(Business in Cameroon) - Coming from Ethiopia, the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, arrived early in the afternoon of 17 March 2016 in Cameroon, the Office of the President officially announced. Sergio Mattarella will leave Cameroon on 20 March in the morning, after going through a packed schedule. A schedule which includes among other things, a one-on-one meeting with the Head of the Cameroonian State, Paul Biya, on 17 March in the afternoon; and a State dinner given in the evening by the Cameroonian presidential couple in honour of its guest.

In addition to visiting the works of some charitable Italian associations in Cameroon, Sergio Mattarella’s visit schedule includes a visit to the Yaoundé I University, with the two countries having a long-term cooperation in the education sector. On this subject, we officially learned, the 4,000-strong Cameroonian student community in Italy, “is the first African community and the 5^th worldwide”.

Apart from issues of a political nature which will certainly be mentioned between Presidents Biya and Mattarella, such as the Boko Haram crimes in Cameroon’s Extreme-North and the migrants’ crisis in which Italy has a major role in Europe; this State visit by the President of the Republic of Italy in Cameroon will be strongly influenced by economic matters.

Strengthening and diversification of the Italian presence

From this viewpoint, a meeting between Cameroonian and Italian economic operators has been scheduled on 17 March 2016 in the afternoon in a hotel of the capital. Indeed, Italy, 9^th supplier of Cameroon with a market share equivalent to 3.3%, wants to strengthen its economic footprint in the Central African country. On this subject, the Italian companies Italferr, active in the construction of railroads and Iveco, an automobile constructor headquartered in Turin; have just notified the Cameroonian government of their interest in the transport sector.

But, above all, the arrival of Sergio Mattarella in Cameroon could be a great opportunity to speed up or close some projects under negotiation between Italian economic operators and Cameroonian authorities. This mainly concerns the construction of a 60,000 seats stadium in the suburbs of Yaoundé by the company Piccini; or a real estate project by the company Pizzarotti, which plans to built 10,000 accommodations in Cameroon.

So many projects which will enable Italy to diversify its presence in Cameroon; which is currently more visible in the logging sector; food industry, with chocolate-maker Ferrero who set up a factory in Yaoundé; or in the tyre sector, through Pirelli.

Brice R. Mbodiam

Lire aussi

18-12-2015 - Le Cameroun attribue un contrat de 163 milliards FCfa au groupe italien Piccini, pour construire un stade

15-03-2016 - La firme italienne Iveco s’intéresse au secteur camerounais du transport urbain

08-03-2016 - La société italienne Italferr lorgne sur les chemins de fer au Cameroun