Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09YAOUNDE123
2009-02-06 06:43:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Yaounde
Cable title:  

TRANSPORT MINISTER ON CAMAIR, PORT PROJECTS

Tags:  EAIR EWWT EINV ETRD ECON CM 
pdf how-to read a cable
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ZNR UUUUU ZZH
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FM AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9670
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RULSDMK/DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION WASHINGTON DC
UNCLAS YAOUNDE 000123 

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/C AND EEB

E.O. 12958: N/W
TAGS: EAIR EWWT EINV ETRD ECON CM
SUBJECT: TRANSPORT MINISTER ON CAMAIR, PORT PROJECTS

UNCLAS YAOUNDE 000123

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/C AND EEB

E.O. 12958: N/W
TAGS: EAIR EWWT EINV ETRD ECON CM
SUBJECT: TRANSPORT MINISTER ON CAMAIR, PORT PROJECTS


1. (SBU) Summary. Competing interests within the highest levels
of the Government of Cameroon (GRC) continue to fight for control of
Cameroon's national airline, rebaptized CAMAIRCO, implied Gounoko
Haounaye, Cameroon's Minister of Transport, in a January 29 meeting
with Emboffs. Haounaye praised the USG as uniquely principled and
honest among Cameroon's foreign partners. Haounaye tried to explain
the strategic vision behind the GRC's ambition to construct deep
water ports at Kribi and Limbe while maintaining existing facilities
at Douala, but we were left all the more concerned that the Kribi
Port, one of Cameroon's most important development projects, suffers
from the lack of leadership and accountability that bedevils so much
in Cameroon. End summary.

Getting CAMAIR Off The Ground
--------------


2. (SBU) Haounaye told Poloff that, although President Biya had
recently appointed a French national to serve as CAMAIRCO's general
manager, the GRC continued to debate competing visions of CAMAIRCO's
future. The GRC would like to identify a strategic partner who can
help CAMAIRCO restart its operations over the next two to three
years, after which time the GRC would reevaluate the prospects for
privatization. Haounaye said the GRC purchased one Boeing 767 that
it had been leasing from American company Ansett Aircraft. Haounaye
said some GRC officials were advocating that the GRC purchase
additional aircraft through intermediaries (and implied they were
motivated by personal gain),but that he had tried to contact Boeing
directly through their website.

Buy American, But Shop Smart
--------------


3. (SBU) Poloff expressed the USG's eagerness to provide the GRC
with information on American companies with the experience and
qualifications needed to fulfill the GRC's vision for CAMAIRCO. In
an implicit reference to recent media reports that an American
entity of uncertain bona fides was using personal connections with
senior GRC officials to insinuate itself into CAMAIRCO's future,
Poloff assured Haounaye that, as much as we want to "sell American,"
the USG would not encourage the GRC to partner with a subpar firm
just because it happened to be American. Haounaye thanked Poloff
for the USG's principled partnership and admitted that he had been
approached by less-than-reputable agents angling for a slice of
CAMAIRCO's business.

Kribi Port: Full Speed, But to Where?
--------------


4. (SBU) Poloff explained that the Embassy was seeking to make
sense of the GRC's ambition to build new deep water ports at Kribi
(in Cameroon's Francophone south) and Limbe (in the Anglophone
Southwest Region) while maintaining the current estuary port at
Douala. Haounaye said the GRC planned to move ahead with the Kribi
project as a modular development, meaning that different entities
would build and operate different components of the port. Hence the
Australian company Sundance had been given the lead role to develop
a pier for the shipping of iron ore, and Rio Tinto was assigned
responsibility for the aluminum facility. Haounaye said the GRC
would continue to have shallow-draft ships use the existing Douala
port and envisioned the Kribi port complex as serving as a container
transshipment facility.

Comment: An Airline That Doesn't Fly
A Port Plan that Doesn't Float
--------------


5. (SBU) Haounaye is favorably disposed towards the United States
and widely perceived as generally clean and competent; his promotion
to the cabinet was driven by his effectiveness as Governor of the
Littoral Region. He comes across as more actively engaged in his
portfolio than many ministers, but equally hamstrung by the lack of
clear delegation of responsibility. His description of the GRC's
internal wrangles of CAMAIRCO makes clear that the national airline
is still seen by many as an income source to be tapped rather than a
national service to be rendered.


6. (SBU) Haounaye's efforts to explain the GRC's strategy for the
Kribi and other port facilities left us with more questions than
answers, an illustration that the GRC sorely lacks for an
overarching strategic vision. More than mere infrastructure
investments, Cameroon's competing port projects are enmeshed in
complex and competing political and commercial interests. Despite
pressing economic development needs, the GRC has not yet made a
definitive decision about how to proceed and, more importantly, who
is in charge. End comment.

Garvey