“Peace, stability and security are our strongest assets”

Peter Mafany Musonge Prime Minister of Cameroon

In a recent interview, Cameroon’s Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge, outlined his commitment to build on the progress made in the past few years.

What does your country have to offer for U.S. investors?
First of all, we call ourselves ‘Africa in miniature’, which means all the good things you have in Africa are here. Some of our strongest assets are also peace, stability and security.
Another asset is that we are bilingual, which is good for anybody who would like to do business with us and our neighboring countries, which are French or English speaking. We are also the gateway to the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) of six countries, and to the Democratic Republic of Congo. This whole area is potentially rich. We have some of the largest forests. We have mineral resources such as bauxite, gold, or diamonds. We have some of the largest hydroelectric resources, which need to be exploited, and, of course, tourist sites. We think investors, especially U.S. firms, should show more interest in Cameroon.

Companies like Del Monte, Texaco and Chevron are already in Cameroon, but compared to some other countries, U.S. investment is weak. Why do you think that is?
It is because they do not know how serious our country is. When you compare us with other countries you see we have greater security, peace, stability, and a work force which is well educated and bilingual. The economic reforms we have undertaken are a major achievement. The government undertook the reforms, the population made many sacrifices, and we have obtained some very meaningful results. Right now we are enacting second generation reforms to consolidate the results of our previous achievements and to carry out more reforms so that our economy can really take off.
Over the past four years we have had a growth rate averaging 5%, and inflation has been steady at 2%. We hope that people are going to see that this is the place to be, a strong and reforming country.

What do you expect from the Bush administration in terms of policy towards Africa?
We hope that this new administration will bring investment to Africa. We agree that this can not be philanthropy. We agree that we must meet certain standards in terms of performance and reforms. That is what we are doing right now. The last administration passed the African Growth and Opportunity Act through Congress, which we are now trying to take advantage of. That was a major encouragement for trade beween us and the United States.

What would you like the legacy of your government to be?
We would like to be known as the government which executed the reforms necessary to modernize our country and helped to reduce the incidence of poverty. A government that continued to foster peace, stability, security and the promotion of human rights and democracy. These are the policies our president has been trying to implement.