Sino-Cameroon Cooperation: China To Boost Transport Infrastructure

Écrit par Cameroon Tribune   

Dimanche, 09 Janvier 2011 23:09

The visiting Chinese Vice-Minister of Transport was granted audience at MINEPAT and later at the Ministry of Transport, last Friday in Yaounde.
The People's Republic of China will move beyond building the Kribi deep seaport to explore more possibilities for cooperation to improve Cameroon's transport infrastructure sector. The disclosure was made by the visiting Chinese Vice-Minister of Transport, Gao Hongfeng after an audience granted him by Cameroon's Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, MINEPAT, Louis Paul Motaze, last Friday, January 7, 2011 in Yaounde. "We did have a very productive discussion with the Minister and we also discussed about our future plan for cooperation in the transport sector," Gao Hongfeng told the press.

He said the purpose of his first visit to Cameroon was a follow-up action to the 2006 China-Africa Cooperation summit during which the Chinese government decided to take the development of infrastructure of African countries as first priority in the economic cooperation between China and Africa, including Cameroon. "For the time being, the first priority for our cooperation with Cameroon is the Kribi deep seaport," he said. A working session was held behind closed doors during which Louis Paul Motaze and his team presented Cameroon's short, medium and long-term transport infrastructure projects defined under the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper to give the Chinese minister a proper view of areas where Chinese assistance and expertise could be needed.

The Chinese dignitary was later received in audience by the Minister of State, Minister of Transport, Bello Bouba Maïgari who presented the importance of several projects in the transport sector such as highways, railways and airports and looked forward to benefiting from Chinese expertise whose quality output he had seen during several visits to China. He cited the Beijing International Airport and the Shanghai seaport. To these, Gao Hongfeng assured that China had a lot of experience to share and will give its full support to the development of transport infrastructure because infrastructural development is important to changing the scope of national development. "I have felt that it is an informed decision for government to develop the Kribi deep seaport. We will give a beautiful seaport to the people of Cameroon," he said.

The Chinese Minister was accompanied to both audiences by top executives in charge of international cooperation, the China Harbour Engineering Company and the Ambassador of China to Cameroon. The Chinese delegation later left for the seaside town of Kribi to view work that is ongoing at the port construction sites in Lolabe and Mboro as well as assess the needs for other infrastructure and amenities needed by the port industrial complex.