MINEPAT has explained the country’s business opportunities to Indian investors.

As some African countries mounted the podium on Monday March 19, 2012 at about 6 pm New Delhi time, 1 pm in Yaounde, to market their different countries, one message came out clear, that is, the desire by both India and Africa to forge a common economic destiny. Cameroon not only had the chance to be presented to the Indian companies by the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT), Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, but also left the conference with a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed between Christophe Eken, President of the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Crafts (CCIMA) and Syamal Gupta, Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Conscious of the low penetration of the Indian entrepreneurs into Cameroon, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi assured the Indian investors that President Paul Biya has enlarged the circle of cooperation links for the country. With the government Growth and Employment Strategy Paper which outlines a yearning demand for development infrastructure like roads, energy, railways and others as well as need for the improvement of production tools, the strategic management of the State with focus on economic and financial governance and international cooperation to support internal initiatives as far as finance and know-how are concerned, the Minister said Cameroon needs partners such as India to succeed. Other members of the panel like the Togolese Minister of Trade and Private Sector Promotion, Kwesi A Seleagodji Lolonyo could not hide their feelings when they realised that the Cameroon Minister and the French Lawyer, Stephane Brabant sold out their ideas in English living him and the Congo Brazzaville Minister of Trade and Supply, Claudine Munari to speak in French.
Earlier on, the Indian CII presented a picture of their trading links within the African continent. The World Development indicators updated in December 2011 showed that CEMAC in 2009 was the least trading partner with 1.2 per cent Indian merchandise exports compared to the ECCAS countries that had 9.9 per cent, the SADC countries with 11.0 per cent and the UEMOA countries had 13.2 per cent within the same period. In terms of Trade balance, India improved from a trade balance deficit of minus 12,181.9 million USD in 2009-10 fiscal years to minus 9,860.7 million USD in the 2011-12 fiscal years. Meaning that India keeps increasing the number of goods they import from Africa. No matter what the figures may indicate, the most important issue now will be for Africa and the Indian Sub continent to make the best out of the new partnerships being created.