PM Recommends Special Access to Industrial, Agricultural Zones

Prime Minister Philemon Yang yesterday chaired the 13th session of National Road Board.

The Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang who is the chairperson of the National Road Board has prescribed to the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development specialized mechanisms to open up access roads to remote agricultural productions zone, protected areas, forest reserves, touristic sites, as well as industrial zones.

The Permanent Secretary of the National Road Board, Moumbain Matapit Issofa made the revelation to journalists yesterday, January 17, 2013 at the end of the in-camera 13th session of the board chaired by Prime Minister Philemon Yang. The Prime Minister, he said, stated that Cameroon cannot attain the two-digit economic growth only from agriculture. Hence, the important role of the industrial sector. Mr Moumbain Matapit said only 8 kilometres of road are tarred in the country's industrial zones.

The January 17, 2013 session of the National Road Board, its Permanent Secretary said, was devoted essentially to evaluate the implementation of the directives of the previous sessions. The session to endorse the 2013 road construction and maintenance programmes and projects, he disclosed, will take place in March. The meeting therefore served as the occasion to examine efforts at putting in place the country's road data bank, the Prime Minister had prescribed. He said work has been done in all the 10 Regions of Cameroon on the exact state of urban and maintain road networks. The discovery was that out of the over 18,000 kilometres of the main road network, only 30 per cent is tarred. Equally, out of the close to 15,000 kilometres of urban road network, only 2,544 kilometres are tarred. The Board members equally worked on access to agriculture production zones in eight out of the 10 regions of the country.

Opening the session, the Prime Minister said the evaluation and rigorous follow-up of road infrastructure projects will enable the government to attain objectives set in the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper for 2020, with the ultimate goal to transform Cameroon into an emerging country in 2035.