Yaounde, Cameroon Africa(Cameroon News) – A delegation of Singapore businessmen have meeting with their Cameroonian counterparts to scope out investment opportunities.
After getting together with the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, last Thursday May 26, a delegation of Singapore business men who would be in Cameroon and Gabon for nine days (May 21 – 30) on a business visit also held talks with business entrepreneurs in Cameroon.
The meeting that took place at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel, was part of a dinner, that was arranged by the Standard Chartered Bank, a market leader in the financial services industry in Cameroon since 1986.
In a speech, the Bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Mathieu Mandeng, referred to Cameroon as a “land of peace and promise” and that synergizing with a business bigwig like Singapore would mean nothing less than fostering growth in all possible forms. Singapore, he said, as per the last World Bank Doing Business Rating, is the highest ranked in the world and Cameroon which has a lowdown 168th position can take a lot of lessons from the country.
“What development should look like is Singapore”, the Standard Chartered Bank CEO said. He said that the visit of the delegation from Singapore had been quite unexpected and said that Cameroon is an island of peace which is replete with rich and vast store of resources which could be easily converted into business opportunities. He also referred to ongoing government measures to turn the business climate inviting to investors, specifically talking about the introduction of One-stop-shop system for business creation.
Like Mr Mandeng, the British High Commissioner to Cameroon, Bharat Joshie, said Cameroon is quite well known for having a lot of scope for new businesses and its location in Central Africa given it the added advantage of turning itself into a business hub. Investing in Cameroon, he added, would in effect amount to investing in the Central African sub-region.
In reply, the leader of the visiting Singapore delegation, Elson Ng, said they had serious plans for Cameroon. Cameroon was visited after the delegation toured Gabon.
