Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in Turkish economy because they are major sources of employment, production and tax incomes. According to Turkish Statistical Institute data for 2011, including services, there are nearly 3.5 million SMEs, and 3,000 large-scale enterprises in Turkey. Therefore, 99.9% of all businesses are SMEs. They make up 77.8 % of all employment, 55.5% of value added, 64.8% of total production value and 51.5% of wages.

In this exclusive interview, Turkish Ambassador to Cameroon Ömer Faruk DO?AN tells Cameroon Journal’s Valentine Mulango how much of this rich SME experience Turkey is bringing to Cameroon.

Ambassador Dorgan, thanked them for the the interview. First all I want you to situate the economic relations between Cameroon and Turkey.

Cameroon and Turkey have several things in common. Cameroon is the economic hub in its region (CEMAC) and Turkey is the port between Asia and Europe. Countries around Cameroon depend on the country for several products. This is a very strong and important position. Cameroon is also proud about its independence – it is an emerging country that wants to develop independently.

That is why Turkey wants to share its experience and know-how with Cameroon on how to develop independently. This is the basis of the relations that we want to deepen. Turkey is currently investing in energy, construction, services, housing, petroleum, education and we have a big professional exhibition complex in Yaounde and envisaging constructing another in Douala.

According to Turkish Statistical Institute data for 2011, including services, there are nearly 3.5 million SMEs, and 99.9% of all businesses are SMEs. How much of this rich SME experience is Turkey bringing to Cameroon?

There is already an existing agreement with the Turkish Small and Medium Scale Industry Development Organization (KOSGEB) and the Cameroon Ministry of SMEs. This accord permits us to have mutual exchanges regarding SMEs. The concentration of SMEs in Turkey is found in economic, industrial and remote zones. These three areas are also very strategic and vital for Cameroon as well.

Cameroonian experts have already made several technical visits to Turkey consulting economic, industrial and remote zones in order to apply the same concept in Cameroon because the country also needs to create a consortium of SMEs in concentrated areas. We believe that Cameroon enterprises which numbers about 700 000 can be reoriented to attain the 2035 goal of becoming an emerging nation.

Can you spotlight on the specific terms of the SME accord inked between Cameroon and Turkey?

First of all, this agreement gives room for reinforcement of SMEs between both nations. It equally creates a basis for strong cooperation between Turkish and Cameroonian SMEs. We have already invited KOSGEB which is responsible for Turkish SMEs to exchange with their Cameroonian counterparts on how Turkey succeeded in grouping related SMEs and orienting them to become big industries like Bursa – the center of the Turkish automotive industry – which produces automobiles and buses or like Ankara Gimat which have more than 10 000 agro-industrial producers. So this agreement creates the basis for exchange not only of experience but also of the legislation inter alia management of SMEs. But at the same time, the accord also gives room for creation of partnerships.

Turkey has an indisputable rich SME experience but the sector is also rocked by several challenges. Do you agree that Turkish and Cameroonian SMEs aren’t facing the same hurdles?

The nature of SMEs is approximately the same but in emerging nations, SMEs have different additional problems which include experience, financing and competitiveness. In Cameroon, SMEs badly need training on how to boost production, upgrade quality and accountability as well as how to achieve cooperation between SMEs. Industry is a chain; a single SME cannot makeup the industrialization of a country. So there is need for SMEs to harmonize under an umbrella institution which gathers and orient SMEs.

These are common problems of SMEs in Cameroon but also in Turkey and other parts of the world. We in Turkey have succeeded to gather SMEs and orient them to regroup amongst themselves for a series of industrial productions. I always give the example of Bursa, the Centre of Turkish automobile industry. At the beginning, these SMEs manufactured vehicle parts but now they manufacture vehicles, buses and even trucks. But this needs some degree of experience. We want Cameroonian SMEs to know that the first step is regrouping SMEs in the same sector and same production field and orient them to migrate from craft to professional production that will slowly but sure leads to industrialization.

So to answer your question clearly, we have common problems but SMEs in the Central African Sub region particularly in Cameroon have additional problems like training, accountability, regrouping, infrastructure and moving from craft to professional productions. So this is the experience that we want to exchange with Cameroon.

We understand a Trade Fair for Turkish Products held late September in Yaounde. What was the Turkish Embassy aiming at?

The objective was to strengthen Cameroon’s economic base with international and professional exhibitions. For the first time in Cameroon, a complex dedicated to international exhibition has been constructed by a Turkish enterprise. It was a general exhibition with about 50 Turkish enterprises in a complex solely set aside for professional exhibition. You know that until now, exhibitions were carried out from left to right in tents rather than a professional complex like what is obtained oversees. But since late September 2014, Cameroon also got a professional complex to host international exhibitions. Once again, Cameroon has proven its competence to host international exhibitions in the Central African Sub region. Another essential motive for the Trade Fair for Turkish Products was create partnerships that address about 300 million consumers located in Cameroon’s environs – that is producing in Cameroon and addressing consumers in Cameroon and it environs.

What memories will Ambassador Omer Faruk Dorgan want Cameroonians to keep of him at the end of your diplomatic mission here?

I will want Cameroonians to be convinced that this ambassador independently supported the process of industrial development and that they had an ambassador from a country that have concentrated efforts towards unicity of countries, an ambassador who tried to strengthen Cameroon’s economic base so that Cameroonians can have an equitable life style like their counterparts abroad.