Cameroon “sells” itself to
European investors
It is within the First Edition of the Cameroon-European Union Business Week,
whose opening ceremony took place in Yaounde on 20 February 2024
There was a great turnout on Tuesday 20 February 2024 at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel, for the opening ceremony of the very first edition of the “Cameroon-European Union Business Week”, organised from 20 to 22 February 2024, under the theme “Seizing investment and business opportunities in Cameroon”. Chaired by the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, and the Director General Off-Scale and Advisor to the Directorate General for International Partnerships of the European Commission, Henrik Hololei, this ceremony was attended by several members of the Government, the Ambassador, Head of the EU Delegation to Cameroon, the President of the Cameroon Business Group, representatives of EU financial institutions, and around 300 European and Cameroonian business leaders
In his address for the occasion, the Minister for the Economy praised Cameroon’s investment opportunities, describing the country as a “magnet” for foreign investment. With an estimated population of nearly 30 million, most of whom are young people, Cameroon enjoys political and social stability
Our country’s ambition is to become an economic, energy and ICT hub for the Central African sub-region, and it is currently engaged in a macro-economic process aimed at ensuring the stability of its foreign trade and public finance. Notwithstanding the difficult national and international economic situation, Cameroon’s economy has always proven to be resilient
“However, the country is in great need of investment to support the structural transformation of its economy”, declared Alamine Ousmane Mey. According to MINEPAT, this need is estimated at more than CFAF 80,000 billion by 2030, and targets priority sectors as varied as production and infrastructure. MINEPAT therefore invited Team Europe and European companies to seize these numerous opportunities, in order to strengthen the Cameroon-EU economic partnership and further support Cameroon in its determined march towards emergence.
This will be achieved through the expertise of European companies and the development financing instruments put in place by the EU, the most prominent of which is the Global Gateway launched in February 2022, with a total budget of EUR 300 billion. The Minister for the Economy expressed the hope that the contacts made during the Cameroon-European Union Business Week would be crowned with success. The European delegation was optimistic about the prospects for the Cameroon-EU economic partnership.
TEI IYBA launched On the sidelines of Cameroon-European Union Business Week, the “Team Europe Initiative Investing in Young Business in Africa”, Cameroon window, was officially launched. This initiative, which is fully in line with the EU’s commitment to African countries, aims to invest in young businesses run by young people in Africa. “It should be based on other similar ongoing initiatives in Cameroon, which are being carried out by a number of EU member States, including France, with impressive results”, said Thierry Marchand, French Ambassador to Cameroon.
“Our country, which aims to become an economic, energy and ICT hub in the Central African sub- region, is currently engaged in a macro-economic process aimed at stabilizing its foreign trade and public finances.”
By Rosalie AKELE
Source: Emerging Cameroon
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