President Abdullah Gül yesterday at the economic forum promised facilitating issues to boost investment between Turkey and Cameroon.

The Over 450 business people, 140 of them Turkish and the rest Cameroonians, who assembled at the Yaounde Hilton yesterday at the first ever economic forum organised in Yaounde between the two countries had two major things in mind; mutual business discovery and the zeal to establish partnership.

The short period, within which they had to make contacts, rather worked in their favour for one thing; there was no time to waste. And so the conference hall was basically transformed into a beehive. At the approach of the hall shortly before the official opening of the ceremony, one could compare the ecstatic movement in the hall to that in the world's most popular stock exchanges. When the doors of the hall flung open, participants first appeared confused on how to go about issues but this atmosphere quickly died down as each one of them identified his or her sector as indicated in the general guide. All contacts took place in 105 tables, each one of them corresponding to a business activity. Some of the sectors represented at the forum were: export/import, food crop production, manufacturing industry, building and construction, external trade, contracting, consultancy, home electronics, engineering and technical assistance, customs services and financier.

Presidential Green light

The seriousness of what was happening at the Hilton was crowned by the river of measures announced by the Turkish President, Abdullah Gül. It was a speech many business people were ready to hear. Almost all the aspects that come into play when investment is concerned were given a Presidential tackle. How happy were the business people on both sides when President, Abdullah Gül castigated the dichotomy that exists between the north and the south where the north continues to live in affluence while the south languishes in poverty. He promised doing everything possible to erase such differences arguing that the world is for all humanity. He said he will defend the interest of Africa in every international forum and conference.

Turkey is happy to have relationship with Cameroon, he said, lauding the country for its peace and justifying the opening of the Turkish embassy in Cameroon on that. Turkey has opened 18 embassies in Africa and intends to add ten more, he added. The Turkish leader was particularly elated by Cameroon's immense potentials announcing that his country is competent in construction, occupying the first position in the world. "We can cooperate in agriculture because it is an important sector both for the rich and poor", he said.

He expressed the wish that Turkey and Cameroon should reach a free trade agreement, that which will facilitate the attenuation or, better still, the dismantling of customs duties. To facilitate business between the two countries, he announced his country will be opening direct flight between the two countries. He promised promoting education between the two countries, stating inter alia that Turkey will be increasing the number of scholarships for Cameroonian students. To elucidate the seriousness of the Head of State, two Turkish universities announced they were offering scholarships to over ten Cameroonian students.

Cameroon's Prime Minister, Philemon Yang, on his part assured the Turkish leader of the potentials of the country, the peace and the good investment code, all aspects that militate in favour of investment. The President of the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Handicraft, urged Turkey to put in place a credit line to help Cameroonian companies. Other assurances came from Mustafa Cikrikcioglu, the Vice President of the Turkish Exporters Association wherein the country envisages stepping up trade to between 250 and 300 million dollars with Cameroon.