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This was one of the resolutions at the closing ceremony of the 3rd CAR-Chad-Cameroon Tripartite Forum on the facilitation of the transit of goods through the ports of Douala and Kribi, presided over by CAR's Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Herbert Gotran Djono Ahaba, in the presence of Cameroon's Minister of Transport, Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe, the Representative of Chad's Minister of Transport and Road Safety, the Vice President of Local Communities representing the Mayor of Bangui, Leontine Bona, Cameroon's Ambassador to CAR, the Director General of the Port Authority of Douala (PAD) and Chairman of the Cameroon Port Community (Port Synthèse), Cyrus Ngo'o, as well as the Director General of the Port Authority of Kribi, Patrice Melom.

The following are other recommendations adopted by participants at the event:

- The Port Authority of Douala should continue to comply with international standards, contribute in seeking solutions for the smooth flow of traffic through increased transparency and the provision of relevant information, and in enhancing the digitalisation of procedures.

- Ministries of Public Works should resolve issues related to the weighing of trucks, ensure the maintenance of road networks used for transit traffic, pursue the development of road networks for the fluidity of transit traffic, and waive any fines levied on duly weighed trucks whose axle weight at the entrance to the corridor differ from that at the intermediate weighbridge.

- Landlocked countries (CAR, Chad) should comply with applicable regulations, refrain from giving any money to police and gendarmerie officials, demand a receipt after each fine payment, contact the forces of law and order in the event of an evident risk of fraud, and plan railroad cargo transport operations with Camrail;

- The Cameroon National Shippers' Council should expedite the construction of trucker accommodation centres as projected in 2012, in collaboration with sister shippers' councils, and continue to inform and train shippers of landlocked countries;

- The forces of law and order should combat the bad practices of rogue agents along the corridors, only conduct controls at check points, train agents on the requirements and documents for international road transport as well as the need to respect conventions signed by their countries, exclusively initiate contact via officially disclosed telephone numbers in order to preserve the credibility of institutions, ensure the strict implementation of decisions taken by the Director General of National Security to identify and take out rogue agents along corridors to curb bad practices;

- The Bureau de gestion du fret Terrestre (National Freight Bureau - Cameroon) should systematically publish GPS reports as soon as the goods cross Cameroon’s borders, reduce the GPS fee to an amount not exceeding 10,000 FCFA and the time limit for the placement of GPS trackers, review cases of multiple overlaying that favour business persons, eliminate all Cameroon Customs fines related to GPS operations, strictly monitor their agents along the corridors to put an end to harassment, expedite the implementation of the Single Transit Document, the single bid bond and the one-time customs release document;

- The Single Window for Foreign Trade (Guce) should publicise the single administrative document and the digitalisation of procedures by organising workshops in N'Djamena and Bangui;

- Licensed Customs Broker trade unions should set up a sub-regional forum for the dissemination of any changes to foreign trade regulations;

- Camrail should improve its service offers, rarely used by neighbouring countries, to guarantee a fair treatment to customers, reduce load breaks by extending its network to neighbouring countries in line with projects announced by the various Governments.

The participants also requested that Kribi be considered as a conventional corridor.

As a reminder, the forum initially set out to examine problems encountered by users of Cameroon’s transit corridors, i.e. business operators from the Central African Republic and Chad, in the routing of their goods through the ports of Douala and Kribi.

In conclusion, Minister Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe invited his counterparts from CAR and Chad to the Total Energies AFCON Cameroon 2021 by offering each of them a jersey of the Cameroon national football team.

Source: CELCOM/MINT