Putting Growth Ambition On Fast Track

Attaining six percent growth rate in 2014, boosting investment and increasing youth employment is the main target of the Emergency Plan on Economic Growth.

Government has stated its determination to hasten up the implementation of reforms along the realm of the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP). The signs were clear last Thursday at the Star Building during the Cabinet meeting presided at by the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang during which the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development presented what he called an "Emergency Plan to Enhance Economic Growth in Cameroon in 2014."

The plan sets out among others to reach as soon as possible, preferably by the end of the year, a growth rate that does not fall below six per cent. How feasible is the emergency plan, what needs to be done, how will it be financed, which are the major obstacles to tackle are some of the questions the plan attempts to answer.

One thing that is certain about the plan is that it encompasses a medley of economic policy recommendations to be implemented immediately, lift growth, ameliorate the condition of living of the population, stimulate job creation and cement social stability. How good all these sound, but from every indication, the taste of the pudding is in the eating. This means that everything has to be done to transform rhetoric into practical implementation.

Emergency Plan Trigger

Growth projection during the 2013 budgetary preparation was 6.1 percent. This objective was not attained as the economy instead recorded a drop in rate down to 4.8 per cent. Two main reason accounted for this state of affairs, notably with respect to the low rate of execution of the Public Investment Budget (PIB): poor mastery of the Programme-budget and poor ownership of the public contracts reform.

In effect, projects retained for execution lack maturation and experienced delays in the award of contracts. The situation is exacerbated by cumbersome procedures, as well as problems in the conduct of IT related support operations. All these problems coupled with the fact that some first generation projects (Yaounde-Nsimalen highway, Yaounde-Douala highway) did not start as planned, compromised Public Investment's contribution to growth in 2013.

Immediate Action

This Emergency Plan is underpinned by a Priority Investment Programme which is the materialization of the initiative on mass investments in basic socio-economic infrastructure which seeks to meet up with the basic expectations of the beneficiary population. The plan has as immediate action especially as concerns attaining six per cent growth the following: improving the business climate; modernizing the production base; improving access to availability of production factors; improving access to funding; encouraging the development of local industries; lifting up the rate of execution of the Public Investment Budget (PIB) to above 90 per cent.

In addition to this government is equally planning to strengthen monitoring of the PIB execution through the observance of time limits of contracts associated with projects, capacity building of stakeholders in the contract award systems and institution of a consultation framework between MINEPAT, MINFI and MINMAP for monthly reviews of the programming and execution of public contracts.

Funding

The major guideline prescribed for the implementation of the Emergency Plan lies on the fact that it will essentially be funded by the resources of the 2014 budget of the various line administrations concerned. To this end, they are to proceed as a priority with the implementation of actions retained and ensure the achievement of the results set out through these targets.

In concrete terms, apart from the resources already identified in the 2014 budget, the funding of the Emergency Plan provides for the identification of additional funds by the various administrations concerned to the tune of FCFA 259.9 billion. This identification will be done through the urgent organization of a consultation between MINFI, MINEPAT and the various line ministries concerned.