The first Forum for Turkish Construction Companies opened in Yaounde yesterday May 12, 2015.

Some 45 corporate companies, small and medium-sized enterprises and independent investors specialised in infrastructure development in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, CEMAC, are on the starting block for B2B contacts with prominent Turkish construction and contracting companies in Yaounde for the pioneer forum for Turkish construction companies that opened in Yaounde yesterday May 12, 2015. The venue is the Turcam Hall in the Mvan neighbourhood and the vision of the Turkish flagbearers is to partner with companies of the CEMAC region with focus to train experts and show latest technology with its usage, sales and distribution.

At the forum ground are nine companies displaying wares on insulation materials, ceramic files, house and bathroom furniture, fibre cement panels, solar energy, and glasses. The Turkish businessmen, all members of the Association of Turkish Construction Material Producers, IMSAD are eager to explore cooperation avenues. The manufacturers are displaying their products, thus giving their Cameroonian and regional counterparts the chance to observe the novelties of the sector. Sharing technological know-how in the construction material business is also on show. 

Cameroon is host to the 2016 and 2019 African Cup of Nations and the Ambassador of Turkey to Cameroon, Omer Faruk Dogan sees in it an opportunity for a better penetration of his country’s investors in Cameroon. Cameroon has earmarked over 20 billion life-changing projects in view of attaining its 2035 emergency vision and Omer Faruk Dogan is confident that Turkish construction and contracting industries, ranked among the best in the world after China, could offer remarkable technology.

Cameroon exports timber, cocoa, cotton, rubber and imports cement, iron, machines and mechanical apparatus, food products, textile, pharmaceutical products, fertilizers, plastics, and many other products, revealed the Inspector General No 1 in the Ministry of Trade, Bouba Aoussine. Turkish statistics, he explained, reveal that Cameroon exports towards their country from 1990-2000 amounted to 48.5 US dollars (about FCFA 28.331 billion) against imports amounting to 85.7 US Dollars (about FCFA 50.103 billion).

In 2011 according to Cameroon’s Ministry of Finance, Turkish foreign exchange direct investments were evaluated at 3 million US Dollars (about FCFA 1.752 billion) with 135 jobs created.   However, the trade balance is favourable to Turkey considering the symmetrical character of the two economies. Equating this tendency, on behalf of a win-win partnership, is what Cameroon is seeking, stressed Bouba Aoussine.

The Turkish delegation will later take on a market prospection operation where they will get to appreciate where and how to procure construction material. The fair ends on Friday May 15, 2015.