– Cameroon is fully ready to take part in the EMA Invest Forum billed for Geneva from October 3 – 4, 2013 where the country will be “Guest of Honour.” The last preparatory meeting took place in the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT) on Friday September 27, 2013. It was chaired by MINEPAT boss, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, accompanied by his counterpart of Agriculture and Rural Development, Essimi Menye.

According to Cameroon Tribune, the meeting was to look at the state of preparedness and to come up with the final list of business people to represent the country at the forum. Minister Nganou Djoumessi is reported to have said that the only condition to fulfill was to submit a matured project that can win the hearts and minds of investors in Geneva.

Organised under the theme, “Geneva and Africa: the new win-win”, the 9^th edition of the Ema Invest Forum will bring together stakeholders in Africa’s economy, businesspersons and Swiss investors.

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29-08-2013 - Cameroon, “Guest of Honor” At 9th Ema Invest Forum In Geneva

Kuwait Fund For Arab Economic Development, the first institution in the Middle East that took an active role in the international development efforts, is currently scanning business opportunities in Cameroon with focus on financing the construction of Government Technical High School Ekounou in Yaounde.

A four-man expert’s team led by Tariq El Menayes was received in audience by the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi on Wednesday September 18, 2013.

The construction of the school in Ekounou is part of a project for the development of technical education. Five other schools are in the pipe notably, Nsam in the Centre, Maroua in the Far North, Akwa in Littoral, Ombe in the South West and Kribi in the South Regions for a total of 27.23 billion CFA Francs.

The project consists in carrying out civil engineering works; comprising rehabilitation and extension of existing infrastructure, acquisition of equipment and the training of trainers among others.

Information garnered from the website of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development indicates that it extends loans on concessionary terms to finance development projects in the developing countries. The Fund also provides technical assistance to finance the costs of the feasibility studies of projects, as well as the training of nationals of the borrowing countries. In addition, the Fund subscribes in the capital of international and regional development institutions.

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29-08-2013 - Cameroon, “Guest of Honor” At 9th Ema Invest Forum In Geneva

The government of Cameroon has reached a deal with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the rehabilitation of 21 community radios and the creation of 15 multi-media community centres in the country.

According to the terms of the accord signed in Yaounde on September 18, 2013 between the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi and the representative of UNESCO’s Regional bureau in Central Africa, Benoît Sossou, the government of Cameroon will disburse 3.046 billion to UNESCO to carry on the rehabilitation work and creation of the centres.

Minister Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi said the rehabilitation is part of government’s development objectives contained in the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper. UNESCO is bringing in technical expertise comprising the training of animators of the community radios and managers of the multi-media centres.

Government plans to put in place 100 community radios in rural areas by 2020 so as to take the access of rural dwellers to the services to at least 75 per cent. Mr Benoît Sossou is quoted by Cameroon Tribune to have pledged UNESCO’s readiness to stand by government in mobilizing resources to meet the dream.

- A Prime Ministerial decree of September 13, 2013 creates national, regional, divisional and communal physical and financial follow up committees to ensure efficiency, celerity and transparency of public investment budget (PIB) in Cameroon. It specifies their respective roles with participatory and results-driven management as underlying principles.

Placed under the auspices of the Minister in charge of public investment (Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, MINEAPT) the committees incorporate all and sundry along the public investment budget chain, giving specific tasks to each vote holder. The administration, legislature and civil society, will by the decree, work in synergy to right hitherto wrongs in PIB execution and give its projects a satisfactory execution rate.

All the committees are to inform the population on the public investment projects in the localities for every given fiscal year. They are also to ensure the respect of projects contained in the project’s logbook by all vote holders, the respect of public contracts award programme as well as ensure the physical execution of programmed projects. They are also to contribute to the drafting of performance reports and prepare up-to-date statistics on the execution of BIP for the evaluation of the performance of the State budget. Appraising the level of satisfaction of beneficiaries of the projects as well as improving on the information of the civil society on the projects execution will not be the least of things to be done by the committees.

The decree is to improve the worrying state of execution of PIB which was everything but satisfactory for the first semester of 2013. Mid year statistics from the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development show that the rate of execution stood at 34 per cent for engagements and 22 per cent for completion, far below projections.

A performance blamed largely on the poor mastery of the notion of result-based programme budget, poor mastery of public contracts reforms and code, the least of which is not bad faith of some actors in the chain.

Bainkong Godlove

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