This was the rationale of the audience that the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, granted on 19 June 2023 to Gabriel Mbega Obiang Lima, Equato-Guinean Minister in charge of Planning and Economic Diversification.

Following the discussions, the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey and his counterpart recalled the importance of this meeting, which is part of the commitments made by the Heads of State of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea to strengthen relations between their two friendly countries, as they share the same community space. “Our sub-region, under the impetus of our Heads of State, aimed at strengthening its integration in order to participate massively in the economic and social development of CEMAC. As Ministers in charge of economic issues, integration and diversification, there was no better setting for this exchange with my brother and counterpart from Equatorial Guinea. The idea is to reflect and examine ways and means of pursuing and implementing the high directives of our Heads of State”, declared Alamine Ousmane Mey.

The purpose, according to MINEPAT, is to bring the two peoples closer in their economic and social development, to enable the sharing of experiences and the pursuit of exchanges between public and private players. This will necessarily involve pooling efforts for the CEMAC private sector to benefit fully from the economic potential of Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and all the other countries in the sub-region. The recent global economic crises have highlighted the shortcomings linked to the limited diversification of African economies. “This needs to be addressed structurally. And it’s up to the private sector, supported by the public administration, to take action, governments, can invest on both sides, produce, add value and create jobs, so that the economies of the sub-region can withstand forthcoming exogenous shocks”, said Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey.

Furthermore, economic resilience in the sub-region will depend heavily on the ability to boost integration in terms of infrastructure and in various sectors such as energy, health, education and training, to tap CEMAC skills in the broadest sense. The two leaders also undertook to meet regularly to strengthen the strategic and operational aspects of the bilateral relationship between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. The idea is to assess the implementation of their joint commitments and to remove any barriers that may exist.