The Vice-President of the World Bank has declared the firm is ready to support the country to minimise the effects of rising oil prices during a press meeting yesterday in Yaoundé.

Mahktar Diop said: "It is not for us to tell the governments of the countries we work with what they should do. However, we are ready to support Cameroon in the establishment of mechanisms to limit the effects of the increase in fuel prices at the pump.”

The World Bank senior also revealed parts of discussions held with the Head of State, Paul Biya, on some of the projects implemented by the Cameroonian government supported by his institution.

He particularly referred to the project to make textbooks free for a certain class of students, the project to improve health services through performance-based funding and the project, which still in the pilot phase, to implement social safety nets to protect the poorest and most vulnerable people.

When asked about the view of the World Bank's recent ratification by Cameroon of the agreement marking a step towards signing an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union, Mr Diop explained he had no comment and that the process is an initiative led between two sovereign partners.

On the other hand, he specified the World Bank remains available to support the Cameroonian government in improving trade facilitation, a program for which the Bretton Woods institution has reserved a total budget of $ 30 million (about 15 billion CFA francs) to assist underdeveloped countries.

About Lom Pangar

The Vice-President was then asked about the sustainability of debt pace of Cameroon. On this point, he stated that even if the indicators actually found some progress, "there is no cause for alarm because the overall debt-to-exports ratio remains quite comfortable. It is far from levels of poor countries who are heavily indebted,” he said.

Mr. Diop is currently in Cameroon on a working visit, which began on Tuesday. During his stay, the Vice President of the World Bank met with members of the government, officials of the Bank of Central African States and President Paul Biya.

He has also visited the dam construction project in the town of Lom Pangar, in eastern Cameroon.

In a slight setback to his original visit schedule, the signing of certain financing agreements were ultimately not able to take place and were postponed to a later date.

An official is yet to explain the reasons for this discrepancy, but, according to sources, the decree empowering government officials concerned by these signatures had not yet been signed by the President of the Republic.

His visit to Cameroon was scheduled to finish yesterday with a meeting with private sector operators in Douala, the economic capital of the country, before he continues to Brazzaville, Congo, for another leg of his African tour.