MINREX boss hails La Francophonie for promoting peace, cultural diversity….

The minister was speaking yesterday in Yaounde. This was during a ceremony to commemorate the 53^rd edition of La Francophonie Day.

The ceremony this year was under the theme: “321 million Francophones, a world of cultural content”. The event brought together members of government, members of diplomatic corps and other stakeholders.

The MINREX boss used the day to salute La Francophonie for helping diverse people in coming together towards global peace, understanding and respect between cultures.

This, he said, is a flexibility that contributes to the sustainable development of member countries. The member of government acknowledged the multipurpose support of La Francophonie to Cameroon in the fields of education, social welfare, cultural development and sports.

Cameroon, minister Mbella Mbella said, is in collaboration with La Francophonie, “recording several projects, especially those financed by the International Association of Francophone Mayors, IAFM, in several local authorities, such as Dschang, Ebolowa, Yaounde, Bangangte, Foumban and Banyo, in the areas of sanitation, solar lighting and infrastructure rehabilitation”.

He also cited La Francophonie as the Cameroon’s pioneer partner in environmental protection.

“I remember its commitment to the city of Yaounde for the implementation of a sustainable waste management project at the Nkolfoulou dump,” Mbella Mbella recalled, adding that that: “It has been a precursor, through the implementation of a methane recovery initiative based on a clean development mechanism”.

Cameroon to host 2023 La Francophonie ministers confab

Cameroon, he boasted, will host the 44^th Ministers Conference of La Francophonie this year. This, the minister said, is a product of Cameroon’s outstanding diplomacy. The conference is planned for November 2023 in Yaounde.

Cameroon was chosen at the end of the 43^rd Ministerial Conference of La Francophonie in November 2022 in Djerba, Tunisia.

In this light, Mbella Mbella expressed “gratitude to all the member states of the OIF, some of which are represented here by their heads of diplomatic or consular missions, for their support to our candidacy to organise the ministerial conference of La Francophonie in 2023”.

The conference to take place in Cameroon, he noted, will be the first in the Central African sub-region.

The minister assured of “Cameroon's readiness to co-construct the analytical framework that could inspire, guide and structure the work of the 44^th CMF, and then that of the 19th Summit, as Yaounde's contribution to its full success”.

Speaking on behalf of the diplomatic corps in the country, Tunisian Ambassador to Cameroon, Karim ben Becher, saluted Cameroon’s cultural dynamism and the commitment of his country to La Francophonie values of peace and democracy.

The ceremony was marked by the award of prizes to some outstanding students and pupils for their mastery of French and other local languages. There was also a display of mosaic of Francophonie culture and Cameroonian artistic savoir faire at yesterday’s event.