VZCZCXRO4453
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHYD #0123 0370643
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 060643Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9670
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RULSDMK/DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS YAOUNDE 000123 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/C AND EEB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/W 
TAGS: EAIR EWWT EINV ETRD ECON CM
SUBJECT: TRANSPORT MINISTER ON CAMAIR, PORT PROJECTS 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary.  Competing interests within the highest levels 
of the Government of Cameroon (GRC) continue to fight for control of 
Cameroon's national airline, rebaptized CAMAIRCO, implied Gounoko 
Haounaye, Cameroon's Minister of Transport, in a January 29 meeting 
with Emboffs.  Haounaye praised the USG as uniquely principled and 
honest among Cameroon's foreign partners.  Haounaye tried to explain 
the strategic vision behind the GRC's ambition to construct deep 
water ports at Kribi and Limbe while maintaining existing facilities 
at Douala, but we were left all the more concerned that the Kribi 
Port, one of Cameroon's most important development projects, suffers 
from the lack of leadership and accountability that bedevils so much 
in Cameroon.  End summary. 
 
Getting CAMAIR Off The Ground 
----------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU)  Haounaye told Poloff that, although President Biya had 
recently appointed a French national to serve as CAMAIRCO's general 
manager, the GRC continued to debate competing visions of CAMAIRCO's 
future.  The GRC would like to identify a strategic partner who can 
help CAMAIRCO restart its operations over the next two to three 
years, after which time the GRC would reevaluate the prospects for 
privatization.  Haounaye said the GRC purchased one Boeing 767 that 
it had been leasing from American company Ansett Aircraft.  Haounaye 
said some GRC officials were advocating that the GRC purchase 
additional aircraft through intermediaries (and implied they were 
motivated by personal gain), but that he had tried to contact Boeing 
directly through their website. 
 
Buy American, But Shop Smart 
---------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Poloff expressed the USG's eagerness to provide the GRC 
with information on American companies with the experience and 
qualifications needed to fulfill the GRC's vision for CAMAIRCO.  In 
an implicit reference to recent media reports that an American 
entity of uncertain bona fides was using personal connections with 
senior GRC officials to insinuate itself into CAMAIRCO's future, 
Poloff assured Haounaye that, as much as we want to "sell American," 
the USG would not encourage the GRC to partner with a subpar firm 
just because it happened to be American.  Haounaye thanked Poloff 
for the USG's principled partnership and admitted that he had been 
approached by less-than-reputable agents angling for a slice of 
CAMAIRCO's business. 
 
Kribi Port: Full Speed, But to Where? 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Poloff explained that the Embassy was seeking to make 
sense of the GRC's ambition to build new deep water ports at Kribi 
(in Cameroon's Francophone south) and Limbe (in the Anglophone 
Southwest Region) while maintaining the current estuary port at 
Douala.  Haounaye said the GRC planned to move ahead with the Kribi 
project as a modular development, meaning that different entities 
would build and operate different components of the port.  Hence the 
Australian company Sundance had been given the lead role to develop 
a pier for the shipping of iron ore, and Rio Tinto was assigned 
responsibility for the aluminum facility.  Haounaye said the GRC 
would continue to have shallow-draft ships use the existing Douala 
port and envisioned the Kribi port complex as serving as a container 
transshipment facility. 
 
Comment: An Airline That Doesn't Fly 
A Port Plan that Doesn't Float 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Haounaye is favorably disposed towards the United States 
and widely perceived as generally clean and competent; his promotion 
to the cabinet was driven by his effectiveness as Governor of the 
Littoral Region.  He comes across as more actively engaged in his 
portfolio than many ministers, but equally hamstrung by the lack of 
clear delegation of responsibility.  His description of the GRC's 
internal wrangles of CAMAIRCO makes clear that the national airline 
is still seen by many as an income source to be tapped rather than a 
national service to be rendered. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Haounaye's efforts to explain the GRC's strategy for the 
Kribi and other port facilities left us with more questions than 
answers, an illustration that the GRC sorely lacks for an 
overarching strategic vision.  More than mere infrastructure 
investments, Cameroon's competing port projects are enmeshed in 
complex and competing political and commercial interests.  Despite 
pressing economic development needs, the GRC has not yet made a 
definitive decision about how to proceed and, more importantly, who 
is in charge.  End comment. 
 
Garvey