Investing In Cameroon: Chinese Firms Eye Three Promising Sectors

The government is encouraging its nationals to take advantage of Cameroon’s mining, petro-chemical and energy potentials.

Encouraged by the efforts of Cameroon in the past few years to improve its business climate, China is urging its firms to take advantage of the country’s additional investment potentials. Speaking at a press conference on March 28, 2017, in the Chinese capital, Beijing, officials of the Ministry of Commerce noted that Cameroon’s economy has been resilient in spite of falling oil prices that have affected many economies. The briefing for 27 African journalists on an exchange programme was jointly organised by the Chinese Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Commerce.

According to Dong Wang, Director for African and West Asian Affairs in the Ministry of Commerce, China wants its firms to invest in Cameroon’s mining, petro-chemicals and energy development. He added that his country was also interested in low-cost housing development in Cameroon, given the experience garnered back home and elsewhere in Africa. “However, there are conditions the host government must meet. Real estate has great potentials in Cameroon as urbanisation grows fast,” Wang pointed out.  

“The latest World Bank ranking on the ease of doing business puts Cameroon in 160^th position out of 190 nations. This is one-digit improvement over the position in 2015,” Wang noted. “The International Monetary Fund projects 5.5 per cent growth in Cameroon’s Gross Domestic Product in the next few years. This is quite good compared to the rest of Africa,” he said. “Moreover,” Dong Wang continued, “the politic...