10th Ordinary Council of Ministers of COMIFAC

• Date de Publication : 2019-10-16

The current Presidents entering Jules Doret Ndongo from Cameroon and outgoing Vincent Biruta from Rwanda, and the Executive Secretary of COMIFAC, Raymond Ndomba Ngoye Yaoundé-Cameroon, July 11, 2019. "I am delighted that the results we have achieved today suggest the happy prospects offered by the future of our Commission" declared Mr. Jules Doret Ndongo, Minister of Forests of the Cameroon and incoming Chairman of COMIFAC. The Ministers, Ambassadors and Plenipotentiaries of the following member countries took part in the work: in Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Chad and Sao Tome and in principle "Angola has participated as an observer. Representatives of the following sub-regional institutions, international organizations and donors also took part: GEEAC, COMIFAC, CEMAC, OCFSA, CEFDHAC, REPAR, REFADD, REJEFAC, SEEAC, RERAC, WWF, Facilitation Belge / PFBC, UICN , AFD, CIFOR, BAD, GFBC, GIZ, ERUDEF, AWF, USAID / USFS, Africa Environment, JICA, UNDP. The solemn opening ceremony was marked by five speeches: those of Mr. Gilbert TSIMI EVOUNA, Government Delegate to the Yaoundé Urban Community, of Mr. Maxime NZITA NGANGA Di MAVAMBU, Representative of the Facilitator of the Partnership for the Forests of the Basin of Congo, Mr. Tabu Abdallah MANIRAKIZA, Deputy Secretary General of the Economic Community of Central African States, His Excellency Mr. vincent BIRUTA, Minister of the Environment of the Republic of Rwanda and Chairman-in-Office of COMIFAC and the Speech of His Excellency Mr. Joseph Dion NGUTE, Prime Minister, Head of Government of the Republic of Cameroon. Following the opening speech, the current Presidency was officially transferred by Mr. Vincent BIRUTA, Minister of the Environment of the Republic of Rwanda to his colleague Mr. Jules Doret NDONGO Minister of Forests and Wildlife of the Republic of Cameroon. After the opening ceremony, the quorum was checked, which was deemed to have been reached, followed by the adoption of the draft agenda. In accordance with the program, the Ministers carried out a guided tour of the construction site of the COMIFAC headquarters building, located in the new administrative district. This architectural gem, worth CFAF 7 billion, is a donation from the Republic of Cameroon to COMIFAC. In a closed session, the Ministers examined the items on the adopted agenda and at the end of fruitful discussions, they formulated recommendations and adopted resolutions, including: - Approval of the 2017 - 2018 activity report of COMIFAC, - The instruction of the Executive Secretariat to continue advocating for the mobilization of funding from partners in order to develop new projects and programs in the forest and environment sector. - The instruction of the Executive Secretariat to improve the structure of the matrix on the state of implementation of the said recommendations and resolutions, by inserting a column "observations". - The adoption of the two-year action plan. - The mandate given to the current President to seize the competent sub-regional institutions, in particular ECCAS and CEMAC with a view to revising the list of products likely to be subject to the reduced rate of VAT. Finally, the Ministers reiterated their thanks to the technical and financial partners for the multifaceted support provided to COMIFAC and its Convergence Plan. On the sidelines of this ordinary session of the Council of Ministers, the solemn signing ceremony of the Collaboration Agreement between the Executive Secretary of COMIFAC and the Permanent Secretary of the Organization for the Conservation of the Wild Fauna in Africa (OCFSA). The organization of the 10th ordinary session of the Council of Ministers of COMIFAC was made possible thanks to the financial support of GIZ through the Regional Support Program for COMIFAC, JICA, CBFP and WWF. For more information, please download the final communiqué of the 10th Council of Ministers or contact tvtchuante@comifac.org or louisetteyebel@comifac.com