Yaounde, Cameroon Africa. (Cameroon News) – Over 360 National and Foreign Craftsmen Expected in Yaounde Exhibition. Some 360 craftsmen selected from the ten regions of Cameroon, some African countries and Turkey, will showcase their talents at the International Handicrafts Exhibition of Cameroon (SIARC) that begins in the capital city, Yaounde on Tuesday, January 24, 2012.

The Minister of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts , Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa, in a press conference in Yaounde on January 19 said foreign craftsmen are expected from South Africa, the Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Turkey.

The biennial event that started in 2008, Etoundi Ngoa said, is intended to structure the handicrafts sector for craftsmen and women to earn a better living from their skills.

“Government is putting emphasis on the technological aspects of craftsmanship so that actors can acquire, through internet, skills and the norms so that what they produce would be internationally accepted and ably compete with others from other countries,” the Minister said.

The first edition of the International Handicrafts Exhibition of Cameroon was in 2008 and the second was in 2010.

The third edition that begins January 24, 2012 at the premises of the Yaounde City Council, will end on February 3, 2012.

Statistics from the National Institute of Statistics collected in 2007, showed that there were about 500 structured handicrafts enterprises in Cameroon and thousands more in the informal sector, employing close to 1.5 million people.

Cameroon Culture