Cameroon and Chad will henceforth cooperate in new economic and trade sectors following the decisions adopted by members of the Cameroon-Chad Mixed Cooperation Commission at the end of the 22nd session of the Commission that took place in Yaounde on December 6 and 7. The Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Integration and International Cooperation, Moussa Faki Mahamat led his country’s delegation, while the Minister of External Relations, Henri Eyebe Ayissi led the Cameroonian delegation.
Following the joint communiqué at the end of the session, Cameroon and Chad will open new cooperation in land transport, Customs, trade exchanges, agriculture, mines and industry, hydrocarbons, forest and wildlife, environment, energy and water, small and medium-sized enterprises and handicraft, infrastructure development, animal industries and tourism. Officials of the two countries equally agreed to pursue and strengthen cultural and scientific cooperation and exchanges, specifically in the domains of higher education, public health, youth affairs, sports, communication, arts and culture and posts and telecommunications.
The 22nd session of the Cameroon-Chad Mixed Cooperation Commission that comes after the 21st session which took place in Chad in 1998, served as an occasion for the officials of the two countries to discuss trans-border issues, especially the exploitation and management of the waters of River Logone and the re-activation of the Moundou Agreement. They equally discussed 13 draft agreements and ways of reinforcing bilateral cooperation through the putting in place of concrete projects. The resolutions of the Commission meeting will be followed up by a Committee put in place in Yaounde that will hold its sessions in an alternating manner in Cameroon and Chad beginning in Chad in 2011.
Ministers Eyebe Ayissi and Moussa Faki Mahamat in their respective speeches at the closing ceremony had a convergence of views on the need to tackle problems such as trans-border insecurity, climate change, desertification and the urgency in the promotion of peace in Africa, ensuring economic and social development as well as regional integration. The Chadian Minister while noting with satisfaction the progress in security, transport and movement of people and their property, raised the problem of harassment.
The Mixed Commission session was immortalised through the exchange of gifts. The 23rd session will take place in Chad on a date still to be determined. We will publish the Joint Communiqué that sanctioned the Yaounde meeting in a subsequent issue of Cameroon Tribune.
