Joe Dinga Pefok
9 May 2008
Business operators in Douala who were on May 6 invited to a meeting to examine ways of enabling them to effectively respect the Presidential Ordinance of March 7 on the reduction on the prices of basic commodities, have told government to promote local production.
The meeting, convened by the President of the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce, Hon. Christophe Eken, was in reaction to the call by the Minister of Industries, Mines, and Technological Development, Badel Ndinga Ndanga, while installing the national bureau of the Chamber of Commerce recently in Douala.
The Minister had challenged the new team to immediately set the institution on the mission to join the Government in the fight for the reduction of prices of commodities in our markets.
At the May 6 meeting, the business men and women in their evaluation of the situation admitted that prices of most basic commodities are high.
They also admitted that the prices of some major consumable products like rice, flour and fish have recorded remarkable increase in prices. The business men noted that a bulk of the consumable products in our markets, are imported and argued that the rise in prices of commodities in the local markets, are merely in reaction to the situation in the international markets.
In order to arrest the situation, he business operators proposed tax cuts, a call on banks to reduce the high rates of interest on loans, facilitating customs procedures to curb r extortion by customs officials, among others. Besides, they insisted that the best solution to ensure the reduction in the prices of basic commodities can only be through the promotion of local production.
They argued that as long as Cameroon depends on imported food items, as is the case today with the bulk of the rice consumed in the country, the country will be forced to play according to the dictates of the international markets. Yet, as the business men noted, Cameroon has vast fertile land for the production of products like rice, and. territorial water for the supply of fish.
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