Infrastructure Development:

Japanese delegation received by the MINEPAT

MINEPAT Boss, Louis-Paul Motaze and his

collaborators during audience with JICA delegation

The Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development MINEPAT, Louis-Paul Motaze, on Tuesday, 5 July 2016 granted audience to a delegation from the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation known by its French acronym JICA.

                According to information that filtered out after the audience, it emerged that the Japanese delegation led by Umemoto Shinji, was in Cameroon to reinforce cooperation ties in the domain of road infrastructure development.

                The Japanese came to present to the MINEPAT a proposal for the construction of another bridge over the Wouri River. They presented the studies they intend to undertake and indicated their readiness to kick-start the project as soon as the government of Cameroon thought it appropriate.

                For the three days that they will put in Cameroon, the JICA delegation will put together all the factors needed to finalize technical studies towards the bridge construction project.

                Talking to the press after the audience, the head of the Japanese delegation presented a picture of what the bridge would look like if constructed. Umemoto Shinji said the bridge will be 2km long, subdivided into three compartments of 600m each.   He said the segmentation was necessary because of the low-lying relief of Douala.

                For his part, the MINEPAT said the proposal of the Japanese was timely especially as it comes at a time when the Cameroon Government is determined to improve on its infrastructure park. Louis Paul Motaze said a third bridge over the Wouri will not only boost mobility of goods and persons in and across the economic capital, it will also accelerate economic exchange as well as boost economic growth.

                Describing it as ‘a dream project’, Minister Motaze assured the Japanese partners of the support of the Cameroon government to enable them to complete the technical studies.

                Meanwhile, the financing for the project is still awaited.