The South Regional Council announced, on July 3, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Silk Road Investment Fund (SRIF), a Chinese investment fund close to the Beijing government. The same source confirms that this MoU aims to improve residents’ living standards through several development projects.

"Our Regional Development Plan (RDP) convinced the Chinese firm, known as the Silk Road, because of the potential of the south region in terms of soil, subsoil, and tourism. They set their sights on the southern region and decided to support us," Emmanuel Mve Elemva (photo), President of the South Regional Council, told the media.

He also announced the imminence of the accompanying commercial agreement. In the meantime, some twenty Chinese experts and teams from the Southern Regional Council will be working together to identify priority projects that need to be quickly matured. As Emmanuel Mve Elemva explains, their method is to select RDP projects and make them “bankable”.  

After that “maturation” stage, the projects will be presented to the regional council for review. At the end of the process, the two parties will sign the necessary partnerships. SRIF is already committed to providing technical support and the required funds.

This is not the first MoU signed by SRIF in Cameroon. On May 29, it signed a similar document with the Cameroonian government, through the Minister of Economy Alamine Ousmane Mey. With that agreement, it was promising an over XAF18 trillion loan to finance the 2020-2030 national development strategy.  

Michel Ange Nga