Finance Minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, met with them yesterday December 10, 2014 at Promote.

Businessmen and women within and without the country have been told that government is unwavering in reforming the finance sector and that the input of all and sundry is needed to attain outlined development objectives. Finance Minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, made the call yesterday December 10 as he explained to the businessmen, on the sidelines of Promote 2014, recent reforms government has undertaken to modernise public finance management.

Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey used the meeting with the businessmen to explain the stakes and challenges of reforms carried out both in either revenue collection, through the Customs and Taxation departments as well as the results-based management of the State budget, through the Directorate General of the Budget. “Our aim is to share with all the stakeholders the reforms which are being implemented in the Ministry of Finance.

They have to understand what is taking place and also to get their feedback, their difficulties and proposals,” the Minister said. Stressing on the need to reform public financing, he noted that it is important to see where the strengths and weaknesses are so as to seek ways of        addressing them for the good of all. “This is to make sure that our journey to emergence is well organized and executed so that the population, beneficiaries of the reforms, should at the end of the day be happy with the realizations on the field.

Reform is just changing a paradigm and we have to do that in the form of improving on the living conditions of the population through a proper use of finances, budget and making sure that we really execute the budget as requested by the National Assembly,” the Minister added.

The exchange forum gave room for questions and answers on burning issues like taxation, deadlines for paying service delivery and the proper consumption of the public investment credits. A member of Cameroon’s Diaspora used the session to reiterate their determination to chip in their quota, with what they have learned and gained abroad, to the development of their home country.

The Minister told them that it is thanks to internal and external forces that the country can attain set development objectives, stating that it was out of place to imagine that government could neglect a no-nonsense force like the Diaspora with their prowess.

He cited government’s efforts to boost private investments in the country, notably the April 18, 2013 law on private investment incentives with wide-ranging advantages, as opportunity potential investors cannot afford to miss especially in a country abundantly blessed as Cameroon. The Minister noted that government will not spare any effort to accompany any investor willing to set up win-win businesses in the country.