Richard Kwang Kometa
25 June 2008
Virtually all Heads of State of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, assembled at the Yaounde Conference Centre yesterday to examine ways to reinforce integration ties within the sub-region.
While President Idriss Deby of Chad was represented by his Prime Minister, Youssouf Saleh Abbas, all the other CEMAC Heads of State were present at the Summit as well as President Fradique de Menezes of Sao Tome and Principe, whose country has been within the CEMAC zone for over ten years with observer status.
In a keynote speech at the opening ceremony, President Paul Biya, current Chairman of CEMAC, called on leaders of the sub-region and all the populations of the community to accept the new challenges of the times which require that they go for courageous ideas that will move the central African sub-region forward.
All five speakers who took to the rostrum at the Yaounde Conference Centre during the opening of the Summit recognized the importance for CEMAC member countries to reinforce strides toward free movement of goods and persons, eliminating customs barriers, making the CEMAC passport a reality among other measures that have been put in place to reinforce cohesion within CEMAC.
In a balance sheet of activities of CEMAC from N'Djamena, Chad, in April 2007 to Yaounde, Cameroon, the President of the newly created Executive Commission of CEMAC, Antoine Tsimi who came into office last year in Chad, cited some of the major tasks assigned to his commission by the Heads of State in Chad. The CEMAC passport, he said, was already a reality and the clause on free circulation of people of the sub-region was applicable to officials of a certain category. Antoine Ntsimi noted that they had put in place Vision 2025 to serve as an orientation and directive for macro-economic development within CEMAC. He said several efforts by leaders of CEMAC had borne positive fruits as evident by the financial assistance offered some CEMAC countries by donors. Tsimi said cooperation between the police force in Central African countries and the CEMAC football competition were some of the signs of willingness by the people to work together. The Republic of Central Africa, he continued, will have to take off from where Cameroon will end with the challenging task of implementing CEMAC ambitions.
Like the President of the Union of Businesspersons in Central Africa, Andre Siaka, the African Development Bank (ADB) President, Donald Kaberuka noted in his speech at the opening statement at the conference that the Central African sub-region has the potentials to fight poverty. While Andre Siaka pointed out that regional integration meant a real common market and the lifting of customs barriers. Donald Kaberuka appreciated the improved macro-economic situation in Central Africa but said efforts to combat poverty were still inadequate. Kaberuka talked of peace and stability as important factors for progress within CEMAC noting that the natural and human resources of the sub-region are vital potentials for growth. He affirmed the readiness of the ADB to keep assisting development efforts in Central Africa and protecting the sub-region with the creation of a fund at the ADB for the Congo Basin forest.
Before declaring deliberations open for the ninth CEMAC Summit at 12:20p.m., President Paul Biya insisted on the relatively long existence of the community saying time has come for audacious reforms and hoped that the Yaounde Summit should give rise to fruitful discussions.
The opening speech at the Summit came from the Government Delegate to the Yaounde City Council, Gilbert Tsimi Evouna.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Cameroon Tribune. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
