The first round table conference on the construction of the port ended in Yaounde last Friday.

There was every evidence at the end of the First Round Table Conference of Investors and other actors on the Kribi Deep Sea Port, that investors will participate in the building of the project. This assurance was made last Friday in Yaounde by the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Louis Paul Motaze.

According to the Economy, Planning and Regional Development boss, investors from China, Canada and Europe have expressed their willingness to finance the construction of the Deep Sea Port. One of the objectives of the first round table conference of investors and operators on the Kribi Deep Sea Port Project was to identify those interested in the project as far as financing is concerned. "We had a lot of people, some of them coming from China, Europe, and Canada indicating their interest in the project", Motaze said.

"We had three objectives while organizing the conference, first, to let people know what it is all about. We think that this objective has been achieved; second to make people react. This too has been done and third to find out those who are interested in the project as far as financing is concerned", he said. He said now that the port has been presented to investors stakeholders will go deeper in the discussions during the second meeting so as to let those interested say exactly what they will put on the table.

Chinese companies are particularly interested in the project. Two of the companies that were present at the Yaounde confab, the China National electric Equipment Corporation and the China Harbor Engineering Company Limited said they will be participating in building the port. "We have a strong interest in the project and we want to use our technology and experience to build the port. I think the port is very beneficial for the Cameroon people and economy", Edward Xu, an official of the China Harbor Engineering Company Limited said. "We have very rich experience and for the past five years China's economy has grown very fast benefiting from our infrastructure", he assured.

The first phase of the project is estimated at CFA 282 billion. It is a government initiated project and dates as far back as the 1980s. It has as motivation to develop the country towards the exploitation of ore resources, notably bauxite, Iron, Cobalt and Nickel; satisfy the constant need of Cameroon to have a Deep Sea Port, the necessity for the sub-region to have a container off-shore terminal and a transshipment as well as goods distribution platform from Senegal to Namibia. The project equally sets out to realise a development corridor for Kribi (Cameroon), Bangui (Central African Republic), Kisangani (DR Congo), and the Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo stretches.

Cameroon Tribune