Government, the private sector and civil society yesterday discussed joint measures possible.

Against the backdrop of reviving the country’s growth in view of attaining an emergent economy status by 2035, a working session grouping government, business people and the civil society held at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel yesterday Wednesday February 29. The Yaounde meeting that also brought together government’s development partners was far from being a forum to tell the private sector of government’s growth vision and to dish out instructions on what is expected from them. Placed on the theme, “Together, let’s speed up growth,” the confab, on one hand, recognised that the private sector is an indispensable partner in catapulting the economy to boom, and on the other, that there exist challenges that must be surmounted by both parties so that measures taken would be mutually beneficial.

The State

Government has embarked on a long-term development policy, contained in the 2010 – 2020 Growth and Employment Strategy Paper. Speaking during the opening ceremony, the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, said “reviving the economy should be a national course.” Getting the private sector, the civil society and development partners onboard the development objectives, outlining short and medium-term wealth and job creation policies as well as jointly identifying appropriate measures to take the sustainable growth off the ground, were the main objectives of the meeting. “What we are expecting from the private sector is their engagement to define the actions we have to take to tackle our development from now. We are going to put in place a committee to follow up the implementation of the recommendations of this concertation. I want to assure you that government will play its own part of the responsibility so that engagements taken are effectively respected,” the Minister said.

The Private Sector

In a chat with Cameroon Tribune, participants from the private sector said what they needed was the political will, evident through the holding of the concertation. Most of them prayed government to improve on infrastructure (road, health and electricity) and to make the business environment conducive so that potential investors can conveniently come in to give meaning to government’s growth vision. Through lectures and plenary discussions, participants sought the way forward through topics like, “What measures the private sector can take from now hence to accelerate economic growth,” “What can be done to boost infrastructure development and sub-regional integration,” “What policy, by who and how to promote growth,” and “How and with who to finance the economy.”