A South African delegation is presently in Cameroon for a five-day economic consultation to rebalance the trade deficit. The Governments of Cameroon and South Africa are finalizing discussions on how to balance the imbalance in trade relations between the two countries. Business delegations from both countries and some private investors met at the Douala Sawa Hotel yesterday to examine ways of striking a balance in trade between the two countries, especially with the imbalance created by Cameroon’s less export or investment in South Africa.

Cameroon and South Africa maintain solid and fruitful cooperation ties made concrete by the putting in place of a global framework, especially the signing of a Commercial Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding. Frequent exchanges between the two Governments made it possible to discover a trade imbalance in disfavour of Cameroon and to determine a number of actions to rebalance trade between the two countries in the short-term. These actions include the regular organisation of meetings between the investors of the two countries. This was one of the essential issues that filtered from bilateral consultations held in Yaounde from September 13-17 last year. It is to this end that the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, MINEPAT, Louis Paul Motaze, led a delegation of investors to the South African cities of Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, last year.

The present economic mission by South Africa led by Elizabeth Thabathe, Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Economy, Commerce and Industry, is a follow-up to the economic mission in South Africa by Cameroon. To strike a balance in this trade deficit, Cameroon is making use of present exchanges to express its willingness to accommodate South African investments in the sectors of health, mines, hydrocarbons, forestry, low-cost housing, agro-industry, industry, telecommunications, finance and infrastructure. According to the Vice President of the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Craft, Ekoko Mukete, Cameroon needs South African expertise most especially in the mining, hotel building and tourism, hospitality, wood transformation sector and film location shooting. He said, Like South Africa, Cameroon has a good and diverse scenery which needs South African know-how to be able to be used by film industries the world over.

The delegation, which arrive Douala on Sunday, will hold discussions with Cameroonian businessmen which will culminate in the signing of protocol agreements and contracts between investors of the two countries. Without stating figures, the Director of Regional Integration in MINEPAT, Elombat Mbedey Chantal, spurred Cameroonian investors to take opportunity of the deficit to export more to South Africa.