Ｂｒｏａｄ Ｐｒｏｓｐｅｃｔｓ ｆｏｒ Ｃｏｏｐｅｒａｔｉｏｎ Ｂｅｔｗｅｅｎ ＬｏｃａｌＧｏｖｅｒｎｍｅｎｔｓ ｏｆ Ｃｈｉｎａ ａｎｄ Ｃａｍｅｒｏｏｎ

China’s contacts with Africa have become increasingly frequent since the Second Ministerial Meeting of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation convened last December. The relations between the continent that has the largest number of developing countries and the biggest developing country are getting closer. It was against this background that a 7-member Cameroonian delegation of governors and mayors headed by Mengue Meka Jean-Robert， secretary general of the Ministry of Territorial Decentralization Administration， paid a goodwill visit to China from April 19 to 29 at the invitation of the CPAFFC.

Cameroon is located in the central western part of Africa. Its economy occupies the third place in Africa. Rich in natural resources and farm produce， it is called granary of central western Africa. The delegation came with the aims to further strengthen cooperation in the fields of economy， trade and agriculture with the local governments of China and expand the scope of exchanges. It visited Beijing， Taiyuan and Hubei Province.

At present， Yaounde， Douala and the Province of South of Cameroon have established friendship-city/province relations with Shenyang， Taiyuan and Hubei Province of China respectively. The change of governors and mayors at the end of their term of office in Cameroon resulted in the suspension of contacts between the friendship cities. Enow Abrams Egbe， governor of the Province of South and Etonde Ekoto Edouard， mayor of Douala， who came with the delegation visited their Chinese counterpart province and city for the first time. They found that there are broad areas for bilateral exchanges and that the two sides should enhance mutual understanding and increase contacts. They also thanked the CPAFFC for its positive role in promoting exchanges between the localities of China and Cameroon.

Taiyuan enjoys advantages in the areas of energy， electronic products and chemical engineering equipment and its products are suitable for export. Since the signing of the agreement on the establishment of friendship-city relations with Douala in 1998， Taiyuan has sent economic and trade delegations to the city and achieved certain results. During the delegation’s visit in Taiyuan， the officials of Shanxi Province and Taiyuan City invited the guests to come to the trade fair that will be held in September 2004 in Taiyuan. The trade fair， held every other year， can serve as a platform for bilateral exchanges in various fields. Etonde Ekoto Edouard who has been mayor of Douala for three years said that he led a trade delegation to Guangzhou in April to attend the Chinese Export Commodities Fair and that the visit to Taiyuan had broadened his horizon. He added， as the economic capital of Cameroon， Douala is highly complementary with Taiyuan in industrial products and Shanxi， an energy province， has experience in exploitation and management of its electricity resources that Cameroon can make use of.

When visiting a vegetable and grain-processing base， the delegation learned that the application of spectrum technology can help accelerate the growth of plants and wipe out insect pests. It can reduce the needs of fertilizer， lower the cost and raise the yield. Enow Abrams Egbe， governor of the Province of South， said， his province is a grain and vegetable base in Cameroon and Hubei Province is an agricultural province in China. There exist basis and possibilities for agricultural cooperation between the two sides. The farming methods adopted in the Province of South are backward. The governor welcomed private businessmen from Hubei to come to Cameroon to open farms and raise the yield. The farm produce can not only supply Cameroon’s domestic market， but also export to its neighbouring countries. The Hubei agricultural experts said that China’s spectrum technology had been put to use in Namibia and South Africa and that they would be willing to export the technology and equipment to Cameroon to promote bilateral agricultural cooperation.

While in Beijing， the delegation visited the Zhongguancun Science Park and showed great interest in the exhibition of new-product incubation. They saw that the Chinese students who had studied abroad displayed the results of their researches at the exhibition held once a month to attract investment so that scientific achievements could be turned into products and produce great economic results. In Cameroon， many students would choose to stay in the country after they have completed their study there， resulting in the loss of qualified personnel. And the loss of talented people in return aggravates poverty in the country. Mengue， head of the delegation， said， the Chinese science park is worth learning. Cameroon should create conditions for its overseas students to return home so as to reserve adequate human resources and draw foreign investments with the achievements of their studies to benefit Cameroon and promote its economic development.

Mengue said， China is the locomotive of economic development of the developing countries while Cameroon is a carriage behind it. He hoped that China would bring along developing countries such as Cameroon to move forward and added that cooperation between the local governments of China and Cameroon would speed up such development.