State-owned China’s Poly Group Corporation is finalizing pre-feasibility studies in view of executing the project.
All things being equal, Phase II of the ongoing construction of a double-carriage (express) road between Yaounde and Douala will be carried out by another Chinese firm, but this time around on a new model - Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), within the Public-Private Partnership Framework. This entails mobilising the funds, executing the project and running it for sometime before handing it over to government.
Authorities of Poly Group Corporation told Cameroon Tribune at its headquarters in Chinese capital, Beijing, recently during a presentation of the multifaceted outfit to African journalists that the project constitutes one of the hallmarks of the excellent Sino-Cameroonian relations. Sources in the company monitoring the project disclosed that in less than two weeks (from last week), they would finalise pre-feasibility studies and forward them to Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Works. This will pave the way for procurement modalities to begin.
Quizzed on what the studies consist in and how the company intends going about the project, notably how much it will cost and the norms to be applied, our source declined giving details on the grounds that the level of negotiations between the company and the government doesn’t necessitate publicizing, at least by the potential contractor. This is understandable as giving details might just have been selling their business model- which is usually a secret, to potential competitors given that after the studies, the government of Cameroon will need to follow the normal channel of awarding public contracts via the traditional launch of calls for tenders. However, the company officials are sounding optimistic of eventually clinching the deal. This is based on their meeting with the highest authority of the land whom they said expressed interest in getting the project executed through the BOT model especially as much has been borrowed in the past to pump into other infrastructure projects. The BOT model therefore offers an alternative financing for the second phase of the much-heralded and highly-awaited Yaounde-Douala Motorway and would obviously ascertain efficiency in execution. As a State corporation, Wang Lin, Poly Group Corporation Vice President and President of Poly Technology, pledged the outfit’s determination to show proof of its ingenuity in the project’s execution when all groundwork must have been laid.
Imperative Foundation!
Delays blamed on administrative hiccups and intermittent obstruction of construction works by disgruntled local population on compensation have regrettably characterized the ongoing first phase of the project by another Chinese firm, China First Highway Engineering Company. Righting such wrongs in the second phase should therefore be non-negotiable! This entails speedily but efficiently carrying out a survey on who owns what on the road course, drawing up the compensation modalities and getting the money, which usually constitutes the counterpart funds from the State, handy. This would be synonymous to a stitch in time that saves nine given that delays in handling such issues in project execution almost always blow up the investment package as well as compromise initial deadlines. No investor especially under the Public-Private Partnership Framework would shoulder such scenarios and execute a two-year contract in five years for instance. Action time is therefore now!
