Cameroon’s new National Development Strategy document that will run for the period 2020-2030 has been elaborated and its implementation is pending the approval of the Head of State, President Paul Biya.
The Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey during the cabinet meeting of November 28, 2019 presented the document in his statement on the theme, “ context, stakes, challenges and major guidelines of the 2020-2030 national development strategy.” The Minister Delegate at the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development in charge of Planning, Paul Tasong presented a supplementary statement on the theme, “pillars of the 2020-2030 national development strategy and institutional mechanism to monitor its implementation.” Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute chaired the cabinet meeting.
Speaking to the press after his statement in the cabinet meeting, Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey said that, “Since 2009, our Head of State made sure that our country is marching towards becoming an emerging country by 2035 based on a strategic document, the Growth and Employment Strategic Document.” He explained that, “10 years down the road, we had the opportunity to evaluate the results achieved which are satisfactory because our economy has remained resilient despite the different external shocks. We have been able to reach a 4.6 per cent growth rate averagely and we want to believe that poverty reduction, level of education, road construction and health indicators have been moving in the direction.”
In order to achieve the cherished emergence, he said, “we need to re-engineer the way we are implementing our policy such that we certainly achieve the goal for becoming an emergent country by 2035”, he said. The 2020-2030 National Development Strategy, is certainly the greenlight to achieve the goal. Government has been working on the document for the past 12 months and that has been done on a participative bases. Talking more on the point, the Minister said, “We had local communities, civil society, academic people, parliamentarians and certainly the private sector that contributed massively with keen interest to elaborate the new strategic document.” Through the document, government is “aiming at transforming structurally the economy because we have to move from a primary sector-driven economy to an industrial-driven economy, “ the Minister said and explained that “This has to be done by bringing in new investments, generating new activities, transforming our raw materials, we need to add value to our products locally, retain jobs in our country and make sure that the wealth generated through strong inclusive growth is shared among the population.”
The pillars of the new National Development Strategy are structural transformation of the economy, development of human capital, promotion of employment and economic integration and finally, governance and strategic management of the State.