The Prime Minister, Head of Government, His Excellency Philemon YANG, this Tuesday 30 May 2017 chaired this month’s Cabinet Meeting at 9 a.m. at the Prime Minister’s Office. The meeting was attended by Ministers of State, Ministers, Ministers Delegate and Secretaries of State.
Three items featured on the agenda namely:
- Statement by the Minister delegate to the Minister of Transport on “development thrusts of inland navigation in Cameroon”;
- Statement by the Minister of Public Works on “direct labour-led innovations of road construction works”;
- Statement by the Minister Delegate at the Presidency of the Republic in charge of Supreme State Audit on “audit strategy on the implementation of Government programmes and projects”.
Speaking after the introductory remarks of the Head of Government, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Transport first painted a picture of river navigation at the national level, showing that Cameroon has a dense but unevenly distributed hydrographic network which is inadequately exploited. He stressed that the inland waterway is an alternative mode of transport, which allows the movement of persons and goods, as well as access to agricultural basins. However, the organization of river transport in Cameroon remains embryonic, and even artisanal, and is confronted with various constraints such as the displacement of natural channels of navigation due to silting; the existence of water-falls and successions of rapids; the congestion of rivers in particular by water hyacinths, and the shallow draught during low water period.
The Minister Delegate to the Minister of Transport then dwelt on the priorities for the development of river navigation in Cameroon, namely: (i) the identification of navigable sections with regard to the hydraulic potential of water bodies; (ii) the development of specific regulations for inland navigation; (iii) development of economic spaces along the main water bodies and (iv) construction of sub-regional integrated waterways.
Taking the floor after this statement, the Minister of Public Works said that the provision of services under direct labour is organized by Decree No. 2016/0886/PM of 25 April 2016 to lay down general rules for the realization of direct labour infrastructural projects. This is an innovative approach to speeding up works, studies or control operations that are of an urgent, strategic or exceptional nature and that cannot accommodate traditional contractual procedures. The achievements recorded at the end of the first year of implementing the direct labour concerned the finalization of the detailed preliminary design studies for the contractualization of the reconstruction work on the Yaounde-Bafoussam-Babadjou road; The execution of rehabilitation works of the first phase of the Mora-Dabanga-Kousseri road; The reopening of the Mundemba-Isangele road; The development of the Yebekolo-North road infrastructure.