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Cameroon: Cameroon Investment Forum - Bizmen Frown at Corruption
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
16 April 2008
Posted to the web 16 April 2008
Lukong Pius Nyuylime
The second edition of the Cameroon Investment Forum opened in Yaounde yesterday, with participants denouncing with vehemence corruption, one of the critical setbacks to sustainable investment. The three orators who spoke at the ceremony pointed to the fact that corruption has paralysed business in Cameroon and many other African countries.
"Everyone here knows that corruption eats into the values required to build fair and humane society", Koosum Kalyan, the Chair of the Business Action Against Corruption Committee and Board member of Shell International said in her presentation, underscoring the fact that corruption is in effect, a global phenomenon which is attracting greater attention in every society.
Organised by the Cameroon government and the Commonwealth Investment Council, the Cameroon Investment Forum will not only handle corruption but will tackle all ills that block the smooth evolution of investment in the country. These include: strengthening investment climate in Cameroon, developing funding and facilitating access to finances, mining industry and prospects in Cameroon, tri-lateral cooperation-business, donors and governments, public and private sector partnership, trade liberalization and economic growth, and growth for employment creation.
To the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Amadou Ali, who chaired the opening, the Cameroon government has done its best in recent years to attenuate corruption and clear the way for a better environment for investment in the country. Of particular note, he said, is the ongoing fight against corruption and ill gotten wealth, the creation of the anticorruption commission, the National Agency for Financial Investigation, the recent two-year tax exemption given to companies under creation among others.
Participating in the forum were business managers, government officials and experts from the Commonwealth Business Council. On what probably could have been the question on every lip; that is, what has so far been done to implement the recommendations of the first forum, the Vice PM cited the creation of the Prime Minister Investment Forum, describing it as an instrument to enhance governance both in the private and public sector.
The official of the Business Action for Africa saw the solution to corruption as a collective responsibility and especially called on the private sector to step in toe and knee. "The private sector is no different than any other part of society", she said. "The private sector is critically important because economic exchange is where corruption happens, and in Africa, we are seeing a major expansion of the role of the private sector", she stated.
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The forum ends tomorrow.
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