External Trade Modernisation Plan Examined

The Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Project to Digitalise the Procedures of External Trade, Louis Paul Motaze, who is also the Secretary General at the Prime Minister's Office, has called on committee members to get actively involved so as to contribute in modernising external trade in Cameroon.

He was speaking at the Prime Minister's Office in Yaounde on June 21, 2013 while chairing the second session of the steering committee meeting. The project is part of the determination of government to simplify external procedures by moving from manual to computerised treatment of documents.

In specific terms, the project sets out to put in place an appropriate judicial environment, integrate different systems of partners, computerise services of all administrative structures and train actors. Its ultimate goal is to reduce the cost and time in external trade transactions and improve Cameroon's ranking in "Doing Business" classification.

The Steering Committee session of June 21 discussed and endorsed the document on the commitment by different actors which Libom Li Likeng Minette, Director General of Customs, who is Coordinator of the Technical Secretariat, presented. The document identifies challenges and proposes solutions.

Some of them are absence of prepared space to process goods destined for Chad, the Central African Republic and North Congo, abusive and the prolonged parking of vehicles transporting goods to these countries. Others are long delays of goods at the port, inadequate and narrow space for joint technical controls and post scanning, racketeering organised when vehicles are removed room the car park, absence of a weighing system at the port, insufficient modern means to secure goods, among others.