The meeting afforded Cameroonian and Chinese business people to familiarise themselves before delving into any partneship and trade deals later. Photo: Cameroon Tribune

About 60 potential Chinese investors from 20 enterprises involved in sectors like banking, water, electricity, building construction, public works, telecommunications, health, education, wood and logging, textile, etc, were in Cameroon last week on a prospection mission. They held discussions on September 19, 2017 in Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital with local business people in preparation for a Cameroonian trade mission to the Chinese capital, Beijing at the end of the year.

The meeting was organized by the Cameroon business consortium, Ecam, in preparation for the Cameroon Economic, Industrial and Trade Days, JEICA, to be held in China from December 1-5, 2017. Amongst the participants at the investment and trade meeting were Cameroonian business executives with projects for possible partnership deals with their Chinese counterparts.

The visiting delegation was led by Lyu Xinhua, a former Chinese Vice Foreign Minister and Chairman of the Council for Promoting South-South Cooperation, CPSSC. Ecam President, Protais Ayangma, said the meeting was to prepare grounds for the estimated 1,000 Cameroon entrepreneurs expected in China for December’s trade mission during which they expect to sign partnership deals to boost the country’s development.

Marthe Angéline Mindja, General Manager of the Investment Promotion Agency, briefed the Chinese business people on incentives for foreign investors. Chinese Ambassador to Cameroon, Wei Wenhua, took part in the meeting alongside Cameroon’s Minister for Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary. Wei Wenhua explained that the meeting enabled business people from the two countries to familiarize themselves before delving into any partnership and trade deals.

From 2008 to 2017, trade between Cameroon and China was about 2 billion US dollars. Between 2008 and 2015, China granted loans to Cameroon worth 3 billion US dollars - mainly for infrastructure, road construction and telecommunications development. Life-changing projects like the Kribi Deep Seaport, Doula-Yaounde dual carriageway, Yaounde Conference Centre, Wada Multipurpose Sports Complex in Yaounde, Bafoussam and Limbe stadiums, as well as wide-ranging hydro-electricity dams, etc, are all visible dividends of win-win cooperation between Cameroon and China in 46 years of establishment of diplomatic relations.

*Kimeng Hilton Ndukong, a contributor to People’s Daily Online, is Sub-Editor for World News with Cameroon Tribune bilingual daily newspaper in Cameroon. He is currently a 2017 China-Africa Press Centre, CAPC fellow.