World Report

With neighbours and more widely, Cameroon actively seeks and develops international economic relations

Trade agreement and international partnerships aid the development of Cameroon’s industry

ameroon maintains close relations with its neighbours, which are progressively strengthening in the face of improved infrastructure links and in the context of growing pan-African co-operation, especially through New Partnerships for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). A long running border dispute with Nigeria is now nearing a peaceful conclusion, ending what was Cameroon’s only international conflict in more than four decades. Throughout the dispute, Cameroon repeatedly demonstrated its preference for resolving the border issues through peaceful and legal means and submitted the case to the International Court of Justice, which subsequently decided in its favour. Indeed, since independence, Cameroon has consistently been one of Africa’s most politically stable and peaceful nations.

One of the most important conduits through which Cameroon furthers its relationships with its African neighbours is NEPAD. Created in July 2001 on a mandate issued by the Organsiation of African Unity, NEPAD offers an integrated socio-economic development framework for Africa. Based on pan-African co-operation, the organisation aims to develop projects to alleviate poverty on the continent, to promote sustainable development in all African nations and to accelerate Africa’s integration in the global economy. Professor Wiseman L. Nkuhlu, Economic Advisor to the President of South Africa, has gained international acclaim for his work in the area of African social and economic development and is current chairperson of the NEPAD Steering Committee. He believes NEPAD’s role is to make African nations collectively better modernisers, industrialisers and harnessers of new technology, to allow them to achieve and sustain poverty-reducing growth.

Such advances will be dependent on closer economic integration. The extension of the trans-African road network is an example of a NEPAD project that contributes directly to the strengthening of regional integration. The extension will link Nigeria to the Central African Republic and act as a significant stimulus to the Cameroonian economy.

Bello Bouba Maïgari
Minister of commercial & industrial development
‘Regional integration aids private sector activity and technological transfer ’

Cameroon also plays an important role in regional integration through its role as the dominant force in the six-nation Central African Regional Economic and Monetary Bloc (CEMAC). Cameroon represents half of the trade bloc’s GDP and over half of CEMAC’s combined population of 27 million people. Officially launched in November 1999, CEMAC members have adopted a non-tariff policy for goods moving within the CEMAC zone, a common external tariff and a common currency, all of which promotes regional trade.

According to Minister of Commercial and Industrial Development Bello Bouba Maïgari, there are two axes to Cameroon´s growth strategy. He states, “Regional integration aids the establishment of a framework that encourages private sector activity and technological transfer.”

A member of the World Trade Organisation, Cameroon also enjoys good relations with the Western world, and in particular with the European Union, its largest trading partner. Cameroon became a member of the British Commonwealth in 1995 and also maintains solid ties with France, with whom it has numerous military, economic0 and cultural agreements.