CAMEROON: BIO OF DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE

UNCLAS YAOUNDE 000856 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT also FOR AF/C and INR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL CM SUBJECT: CAMEROON: BIO OF DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE PRESIDENCY, PHILEMON YANG YUNDJI ¶1. (U) Summary. Philemon Yang, already a senior official in Cameroon's Presidency, is pegged by many for more senior positions in the Government of Cameroon, including perhaps as a future Prime Minister. Anglophone and comfortable with the Western (especially English-speaking) world, Yang has impressed us with his professionalism. End summary. ¶2. (U) In October 2004, when President Paul Biya was elected for a third consecutive mandate, he asked Philemon Yang Yundji to fill the role of Deputy Secretary General of the Presidency in the new Cabinet. Yang has held this position since December 8, 2004. He is a member of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), an unwritten requirement for senior government officials. Career -------------- ¶3. (U) Yang returned to Cameroon in 2004 from his previous position as High Commissioner to Canada. He had served a twenty year term in Ottawa, and had been Dean of the Ottawa Diplomatic Corps for over ten years. He had also served as President of the Cartagena Protocol on the Prevention of Biotechnological Risks from 2000 to ¶2004. ¶4. (U) Yang's career began in January 1975 when he joined the Cameroonian civil service, working as a State Counsel/Prosecutor in Buea, South West Province. Within six months, at the end of June 1975, Yang was appointed Vice Minister of Territorial Administration. He remained there until November 1979, when he took his first Cabinet position as Minister of Mines and Energy, under former Cameroonian President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Education -------------- ¶5. (U) Yang graduated with a BA in Law (1972) from the University of Yaounde. He earned his Master's degree in the same field from the University of Ottawa, and an MBA from Century University in New Mexico. Yang is a magistrate trained at Cameroon's National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM). He also holds a diploma from the Paris-based International Institute for Public Administration, and completed field training at Colmar High Court in France. A native of the Anglophone Northwest Province, Yang is fluent in English and French. Comment -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Upon returning to the Cabinet after 20 years in Canada, Yang would have noticed that the government no longer functions with the rigor that marked the Ahidjo administration. In 2006 and 2007, Yang was quite vocal in campaigning for government anti-corruption policies, and for his party's victory in the 2007 municipal and legislative elections in his native North West province. Yang belongs to Cameroon's "old school" technocrats, motivated more by conventional notions of civil service then by party ideology. Yang has been long rumored as a possible future Prime Minister. Future PM or not, Yang's profile means he will likely feature prominently in the government if Biya pushes ahead with promised reforms to improve governance and reduce corruption. End comment. [B1]You can get these addresses from Cable Express or from Devon