A visiting delegation of French experts held discussions with officials of Cameroon’s Competitiveness Committee Wednesday March 30. Stakeholders of the Clusters Wood Project, meant to ensure that value is added to the country’s wood products before export, with the view of creating jobs, alleviating poverty and advancing the country’s industrialisation, are tapping from the fountain of French expertise to take the project off the ground. After a trip to France by the Permanent Secretary of the Competitiveness Committee, Lucien Sanzouango and other focal point members to get first-hand experience on the sector there, a group of French experts recently rounded off a return visit to Cameroon to know more about the project and what is being done to foster it.

Speaking in a press briefing Wednesday March 30, after holding talks with stakeholders of the project, the French delegation leader, Christophe Geoffroy, President of Africa-France Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said Cameroon is blessed with enormous natural resources like wood, whose processing would create jobs, wealth and speed up development. For the Clusters Wood project in Yaounde, which already has a 50-hectare piece of land for its activities, Mr Geoffroy said they would provide technical assistance to boost the project. “A delegation of officials of Competitiveness Committee recently spent eight days in France and I also came with some officials of enterprises. We have a meeting on April 14 to prepare an agreement so that French companies can bring in technical assistance by training the people here”, he said.

While the site of the project in Yaounde is ready for takeoff, Mr Sanzouango said feasibility studies are ongoing in Bertoua to determine how the project will be executed there. The project also aims to increase, in a sustainable manner; the economic impact of the value added to the wood value chain in the country and will support regulatory and institutional interventions to encourage productive private investments and job creation. Over 5,000 direct and indirect jobs, officials say, will be up for grasp when the Yaounde project takes off. Intended to promote wood products, the project will also help reduce waste and illegal and unsustainable logging, especially by promoting high-yield cutting techniques, the use of secondary species and drying techniques to increase the quality and shelf life of wood. The World Bank last October 2010 provided additional funding for the project to the tune of FCFA 15 billion.