The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO, and Investment Promotion Agency of Cameroon (Cameroon -IPA), are also training on the use of the virtual tool for viable foreign investment.

Cameroon like other African countries now has an investment monitoring platform, a global web-based tool to analyse, research and share investment data among the public and private sectors with the goal of attracting viable and sustainable investment, especially direct foreign investment for the socio-economic development of the country. The platform, conceived by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and piloted in partnership with the Investment Promotion Agency of Cameroon (Cameroon -IPA) is hosting in-depth data on almost 7,000 companies in 19 African countries.

The survey whose results are contained in the investment monitoring platform analyses the investment trends in Africa, assesses the performance and impact of foreign investors, evaluates the response of investments to incentives, designs policy based on empirical evidence, identifies and promotes investment opportunities as well as underlines the influence of foreign investment on the performance of domestic companies.

Like the General Manager of Cameroon -IPA, Marthe Angeline Minja, the Industrial Development Officer at UNIDO, Tidiane E. Boye, said with the information they got from surveying the companies, they will be able to have data that would help national institutions to design realistic and evidence-based investment promotion strategies. "It is also an instrument designed for the private sector through which they will be able to gather information on the investment conditions here in Cameroon as well as on the performance of different sectors of the economy especially comparisons that can be made between Cameroon's economy and others in African. It will also link Cameroonian businesses with others within and without Africa," they said. Organisers also train on the use of the platform.

The opening ceremony was chaired by the Minister of Mines, Industries and Technological Development, Emmanuel Bonde, who underscored government's unwavering desire to improve its investment climate and attract as many viable direct foreign investors as possible capable of lifting the economy to a middle-income one.