The South African Trade Mission continued economic consultations in Douala last Thursday September 4.

Engagements to deepen investments in Cameroon and South Africa, within the framework of Bilateral Trade Agreement between the two countries, have entered high gear. Last week a South African Trade Mission was in Douala, where exchanges to further mutually beneficial investments took place between authorities and business persons of the two countries.

The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry for South Africa, Elizabeth Thabethe, who led the sector-specific business mission, outlined her countries interest, which falls in the areas of infrastructure, tourism and the hospitality industry, agriculture, mining, oil and gas, ICT and manufacturing. During their exchanges attention was vested on how to improve business climate to promote more investments, redress trade imbalance, enhance intra-Africa trade, while attracting direct foreign investment. Bilateral economic relations, she emphasises, if it continues to aspire results it will trade better and obtain sustainable development through dynamic partnerships. She further adds that countries are succeeding because they support the growth of small enterprises but they don’t need to remain small forever.

Cameroon’s delegation which consisted of officials of the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Craft as well as some business persons, led by Governor Joseph Beti Assomo of the Littoral Region, say the deal is important to appropriate Cameroon’s rich potentials and to open up new havens for investment in South Africa. The negotiation acknowledges that domestic regulation and standards are essential for protecting economies from unscrupulous business practices that bring harm to society, environment, national security and infant industries. The mission is a culmination of a series of bilateral engagements that emanated from the Bilateral Trade Agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding on Economic and Technical Cooperation that was ratified in May 2009.