PRESS RELEASE FOLLOWING THE CABINET MEETING OF THURSDAY, 31 MAY 2012

The Prime Minister, Head of Government, Mr Philemon YANG, today, Thursday 31 May 2012 as from 11:00 a.m. chaired an important Cabinet Meeting in the main building of the Prime Minister’s Office. In attendance were the Vice Prime Minister, Ministers of State, Ministers, Ministers-Delegate and Secretaries of State.

 Three items featured on the agenda, namely:

1. The statement of the Minister for Public Health on: “Stakes and challenges of the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper in the public health sector”;

2. The statement of the Minister for the Economy, Planning and Regional Development on: “the assessment and prospects for the implementation of the public-private partnership supervisory mechanism”;

3. The report of the Minister for Sports and Physical Education on: “the state of preparedness for the London 2012 Olympic Games”.

The first statement, presented by the Minister for Public Health, enabled Members of Government to take ownership of health sector stakes and challenges, as outlined in the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP). It revealed that the health priorities suggested especially by the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), were systematically incorporated in the Sector Strategy updated since 2010.

The main target of the Strategy is universal access to quality health-care and services through improved supply and financing of demand. The goals are to: (i) reduce by one-third the morbidity rate among the poorer and more vulnerable segments of the population; (ii) reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate among children aged below five years; (iii) reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality rate; (iv) reduce the HIV prevalence rate by 50%, and (v) reduce the rate of mortality associated with malaria to below 10%.

He indicated that the health sector strategy has four focus areas: (i) mother, juvenile and infant health whose desired impact will be seen in pregnant women’s access to health facilities and a higher vaccination coverage rate for children; (ii) disease control through diagnostic capacity-building and appropriate care, combined with good epidemiological surveillance; (iii) health promotion through further educating the population on the social determinants of health and (iv) health district development thanks to an ambitious infrastructure policy.

The Minister for Public Health pointed out that the implementation of the sector strategy was underpinned by a strong desire to pool health risk through the promotion of health cooperatives, a drug policy focused on enhancing accessibility and availability, a significant improvement of governance in the sector, the design and implementation of a human resource development plan centred on absorbing any qualitative and quantitative shortfall and greater equity in the distribution of health personnel nationwide.

With regard to the issue of health financing, the Minister indicated that external resources were on a net decline. Accordingly, he advocated for the mobilization of more national resources not only through the State budget but also by accelerating the organization of the national health insurance system prescribed by the Head of State.

At the end of this statement, the Head of Government asked the Minister for Public Health to complete the design of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) of his sector to better reflect health priorities in the State budget. He also enjoined him, by 2015, to better monitor the implementation of the health-related Millennium Development Goals.

The proceedings continued with the statement of the Minister in charge of the economy, centred on the assessment and prospects of the implementation of the partnership contracts arrangement, created by the December 29, 2006 law, which encourages closer private sector involvement in infrastructure development.

The Minister pointed out that partnership contracts were an innovative funding method whereby the State or its decentralized agencies entrust full responsibility to a third party and for a specified period for all or part of a project’s implementation phases, namely: design, financing, construction, transformation, maintenance, operation or management.

To facilitate the delivery of this arrangement, the State not only laid down an attractive tax, financial and accounting regime but also set up an expert body – the Partnership Contracts Support Council (CARPA), tasked with steering procedures between contracting parties.

The Minister in charge of the economy indicated that projects whose financing through partnership contracts were being considered, will soon be concluded. However, the public-private partnerships framework needs to be popularized.

The Prime Minister asked the Minister for the Economy, Planning and Regional Development to ensure that the first projects (for instance, the three trade centres planned in Douala) are quickly completed as these will stand as proof of the reliability and efficiency of Cameroon’s partnership contracts system.

The last to be recognized was the Minister for Sports and Physical Education for his report on the Cameroon Olympic Team’s preparedness for the London Olympic Games scheduled from 27 July to 12 August 2012. He said that the National Olympics and Sports Committee and his ministry had signed an agreement in January 2011 in that regard. A project known as On the Road to London 2012 was designed to methodically cater to all sports, administrative and financial aspects of that preparation.

At the sports level, 32 athletes have already qualified or are awaiting final selection in the following nine disciplines: field and track, rowing, boxing, women’s football, judo, weight-lifting, wrestling, swimming and table tennis. They are presently in camp and will travel to Scotland for final training and acclimatization in early July 2012.

The Minister in charge of sports indicated that all administrative formalities have been fulfilled and the necessary budgetary resources to finance the Cameroon Olympic Team, amounting to CFAF 1.4 billion, are being mobilized.

After noting the report, the Head of Government instructed the Minister for Sports and Physical Education to complete the last phase of preparation of athletes and ensure that a conducive climate for good performance always reigns within the Cameroon delegation.

The Cabinet Meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m./-

Yaounde,

GHOGOMU Paul MINGO,

DIRECTOR OF THE PRIME MINISTER’S CABINET