The Global Business Community's initiative complements several reforms that government introduced to improve the business climate in Cameroon.
The international conference on building entrepreneurial ecosystems in Africa that the Global Business Community organised in Yaounde last weekend was timely as it complements numerous efforts taken by government to improve the country's business climate.
Given that Cameroons's business climate, like that of every other country, is affected by constantly changing factors from within and without the country such as technology, regional and international trade agreements, there is need to continually upgrade the ecosystems; making sure national reforms are tailored to enable local businesses overcome the challenges of the times.
A milestone initiative overseen by government in this regard, is the Cameroon Business Forum (CBF), which according to Prime Minister Philemon Yang, has enabled the country to keep up with the pace in terms of improving the legal and regulatory framework of doing business in Cameroon, strengthening of economic governance and businesses, promoting budgetary accountability, refining transparency and accountability as well as reducing risks for local and foreign investors.
The CBF; an annual rendezvous where major public and private sector stakeholders meet to evaluate the country's business climate in view of constant improvement, has thus far recorded good results. During the 9th session of the CBF held in Douala last month, it was disclosed that 16 out of 25 recommendations reached during the preceding session had been implemented while six others were in the course of execution.
Only two had not been put to practice while one was programmed for re-examination. Government equally outlined measures taken to promote private businesses, a majority of which are small and medium-size enterprises.
Among them was the operationalisation of an escrow account in BEAC, dedicated to the refunding of VAT credits; the legal framework for the dematerialization of public contract procedures and the establishment of a system for the transmission of electronic receipts at the level of the directorate of taxation for large corporations and medium-sized enterprises.
Going by Prime Minister Philemon Yang, government has planned to, within the next seven years, take some major steps aimed at "redressing the shortcomings and constraints bedevilling doing business in Cameroon."
This would include simplifying procedures for setting up of businesses by reducing timeframes and related costs; scrapping the numerous required administrative authorizations for the exercise of an economic activity and reducing transit costs and timeframes at the Douala port. Shortening of fiscal and customs systems in order to ease import and export operations is also envisaged.
