A tour de force through Cameroon

Eight businesspeople find numerous opportunities on a recent visit to the African nation

On a blustery Dec 4 morning in Beijing, Souley Manou, director of the Cameroonian tourism information office for Asia, gets an emotional call at his office.

At the other end of the line, He Bin, a Chinese national, gushes over the "wonderful stay that he and his seven friends just completed" in the country that gave the world Roger Milla and Samuel Eto'o, two Cameroonian football legends who are adored in China.

He describes the trip to Manou in detail. It's nearly midnight on Nov 10 and the eight Chinese friends, traveling with a large contingent of Chinese tourists and businesspeople, are bleary-eyed after having landed at Nsimalen International Airport in the capital, Yaounde.

But as they were being welcomed by Cameroonian officials, the group of eight - He, Yang Jianqiang, Hu Xiaoming, Li Chengmin, Li Shengli, Men Jing, Zhao Guangin and Zhang Shenwu - also have an air of ambition, and a shared purpose and goal.

The eight are middle-aged men, with an average age of 44 years. Seven of them are from Shanxi province, a region that has strong ties with Cameroon. Sure, they are interested in the lush beaches of Kribi, but as they ride around with their interpreter, Mahamat Adam, they are far more interested in the port city's economic potential. They pepper Adam with questions about the industrial port complex being built there with the support of Chinese investment.

The eight make their ambitions clear. They did not come to the country for rest and relaxation, they were here to find opportunities to invest in hotels and shopping centers.

"A square meter is now up to $100," says an official with the country's land tenure department, a far cry from the 100,000-yuan ($16,120) price per square meter that some busy ares in Beijing can fetch. Zhao Guangin remarks that $100 per square meter is high for a city in the making.

The officials reply that for investors who want to open a four or five-star hotel in Kribi and build shopping malls, the local gas plant, operational for two years, is a guarantee that electrical problems are under control.

The group then visits Buea and Limbe, two more cities with high growth potential.

Buea recently hosted celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the reunification of the former two Cameroon states. There is new infrastructure, while existing ones are being rehabilitated. Li Shengli and Men Jing express their amazement after a visit to Cameroon's first post office, which opened at the end of the 19th century.

The eight Chinese businesspeople also visit the Bismarck Fountain in Buea, built in 1899 to honor the country's ties with Germany. After a visit to Buea Mountain Hotel, some within the group say they were pleasantly surprised by the professionalism of the hotel staff.

In Limbe, another seaside resort filled with hotel operators, Angeline Minja, director-general of the Cameroon Investment Promotion Agency, says, "Rest assured, there is still room for many investors in Limbe."

Two years ago, she says, the country signed into law several investment incentives in an effort to build the country and the city's business environment.

Emmanuel Bonde, Cameroon's minister of mines, industry and technological development, and representatives of the ministry of state in charge of tourism and recreation then makes a formal presentation of their respective sectors and vow to facilitate administrative procedures for Chinese investors.

The tour takes the eight to the Cameroon Center of Application of Agricultural Technologies in Nanga Eboko, where a plant is being built to process cassava into ethanol.

The center's representatives say that Chinese entrepreneurs are planning to acquire 1,300 square meters for office space in Yaounde and hotels, casinos and cinemas in Douala.

As the call with He wraps up, Souley Manou has a smile on his face.

"This tourist travel and exploration of Chinese entrepreneurs in Cameroon is the first that our young structure organized. The results we have obtained and the satisfaction of Chinese partners lead us to believe that the initiative will be renewed in January 2015. We hope to have three to four similar trips a year."

China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/02/2015 page21)