Below is the press release following the cabinet meeting of Monday, April 21, 2014.

“The Prime Minister, Head of Government, Mr Philemon YANG,  on Monday 21 April 2014 as from 11:00 a.m. chaired an important Cabinet Meeting in the main building of his Office. In attendance were the Vice Prime Minister, Ministers of State, Ministers, Ministers-Delegate and Secretaries of State.

The lone item on the agenda was the consideration of the draft “Contingency plan for fast-tracking economic growth in Cameroon”, presented by the Minister for the Economy, Planning and Regional Development.

Before that, the Cabinet listened to the special statement of the Head of Government on the importance and urgent need to redouble efforts in order to obtain robust, sustainable growth for the economy of Cameroon. In particular, he dwelled on the challenge the Head of State threw to the Government to speed up economic growth in order to tackle the challenge of emergence in 2035.

The Prime Minister recalled that the search for robust growth and job creation were the two pillars of the national development strategy being implemented by public authorities for five years now. He stressed that a substantially higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will not only take us closer to emergence but also positively affect the country’s performance and hence foreign direct and national investments and fiscal revenue.

Next to take the floor was the Minister in charge of the economy who presented the broad lines of the contingency plan for fast-tracking economic growth in Cameroon whose objective is to achieve a growth rate of at least 6% in 2014 and to reap other substantial spinoffs in coming years, in terms of higher production and increased national wealth.

The plan, the Minister said, is aligned to the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP) and prepared in a participatory manner with the support of organizations representing the private sector. It will be financed by resources of the 2014 budget and contains a special priority investments programme.

The private sector is the main engine of growth. Consequently, the actions and measures adopted aim inter alia at improving the business climate, modernizing the production machinery, strengthening access and availability of factors of production, fostering access to financing and accelerating industrialization. In public investments, the aim is to raise the rate of implementation of the public investment budget (PIB) to over 90%, improve PIB project maturation, accelerate the effectiveness of funding agreements and improve the use of bilateral and multilateral cooperation funds.

During the ensuing discussions, some improvements were made to the draft contingency plan which will be submitted for the approval of the President of the Republic. The Prime Minister reminded Members of Government that once approved, the measures and actions listed in the contingency plan must be prioritized in all Government departments.

In that regard, he prescribed two monitoring mechanisms (one monthly and the other two-monthly) for agencies tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper.

The Cabinet Meeting was adjourned at 2:30 p.m.”

 Yaounde, 21 April 2014

 Louis Paul MOTAZE,

Secretary-General of the

Prime Minister’s Office