Cameroonians hope summit helps develop economy

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Cameroonians living in Jakarta hope the Asia-Africa Summit, which ended Sunday, will encourage Asian countries to help develop Africa's manufacturing sector and change Asia's perception about Africans.

"The summit is a good event to further develop economic ties between Asia, especially Indonesia, and African countries as neither Asia nor Africa continents enjoy European or American domination," said Yangan Ugoliy, a Cameroonian who has been living in Indonesia for three-and-a-half years.

Ugoliy, who invested US$30,000 on a garment business in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, said that Cameroon needed Asian businessmen to participate in the transfer of knowledge to develop manufacturing plants in Cameroon.

"The reason why Asian businessmen should look to Cameroon to invest in manufacturing plants is that our country could also sell the products to neighboring countries," he said, referring to the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, which share land boundaries with Cameroon.

Indonesia hosted a two-day summit attended by representatives of Asian and African countries on April 22 and April 23 in Jakarta in order to boost relations between countries on the two continents.

Another Cameroonian who has visited Indonesia seven times since 1999, Brandon Keaka, said that African countries were potential markets that offered profitable business since most African countries lacked the resources to start a good business.

"Africans are mostly consumers, they only consume. I hope from this meeting investors from Asia will have the ability to visit Africa and invest so that Africans can also produce goods by establishing partnerships with Asian businesspeople," Keaka said.

He also hoped the African delegations could improve the image of Africans living in Indonesia by making a good impression on the Indonesian committee and government officials they interacted with during the summit.

"I hope this meeting will change Indonesians' perception of Africans because most people here have a bad perception of Africans, often seeing us as bad guys.

"With our people coming here to meet your people, they could work together so our image could improve," said Keaka, who attended several business seminars held in relation to the summit.

His fellow citizen Yonga added that aside from socioeconomic interests, Asia and Africa cooperation could also lead to the formulation of a better strategy in international politics.

"It would be better for Asian and African people to cooperate with each other rather than depend on European or American help. Asian countries could help African countries become more independent from European or American intervention in our political system," said Keaka, who exports Indonesian ceramics to Cameroon.