The government of the United States of America has promised to more than ever before partner, in a sustainable manner, with the government of Cameroon to boost scientific research in the country. Robert P. Jackson, USA Ambassador to Cameroon made the disclosure on Monday December 13, 2010 after an audience with Cameroon’s Minister of Scientific Research and Innovation (MINRESI), Madeleine Tchuinte. He said their decision is bolstered by a decision taken by the sitting President of the USA, Barrack Obama, to look for ways of intensifying scientific cooperation with growing economies. “So my meeting with the minister was to understand what we are currently doing and what else we may do in terms of scientific research and innovation”, the U.S. diplomat told the press after their over 45-minute discussions.
A meeting which Dr Tchuinte used to brief her guest on the challenges government is going through to boost scientific research and innovation in the country. The country, she said, is yearning for food security and safety and absolutely needs quality and quantity seedlings of all food crops to surmount the challenge as well as support from development partners like the USA to ably use research to propel the economy to a sustainable emerging one by 2035.
Mr. Jackson said his country had been partnering with Cameroon especially in the domain of agronomic research and that efforts are on course to foster the cooperation which almost cooled in the recent years. “A few weeks ago, we signed an accord with Cameroon to do scientific training in radiological issues so that people do not use the port of Douala and other ports to export things we don’t want from this country to the USA and other countries”, he said. In line with the accord, equipment worth some FCFA 1,5 billion, have been acquired and will be offered to the National Agency for Radio Protection. He said Cameroon has over the years stood out as a wonderful partner in medicinal research and nothing will be left to chance to foster the cooperation. “There are projects we are thinking about, today we have learned more and I will come back to the minister with concrete proposals”, the Ambassador concluded.
