Six heads of State, including host country leader Denis Sassou N’Guesso, are in the Congo to attend the 11th session of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), scheduled to kick off on Wednesday in Brazzaville.
François Bozize of the Central African Republic (CAR), Obiang Guema Basogo of Equatorial Guinea, Idriss Deby Itno of Chad, Paul Biya of Cameroon and Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon have all arrived here, in an unprecedented move, which will allow the sub-regional body to hold its first meeting, with all its leaders attending.
During the session, the heads of State will discuss the 2011-2015 Operational Plan of the CEMAC Regional Economic Programme (PER), the security of CEMAC’s funding by the Community Integration Tax (TCI), which should be set at 1 per cent of CEMAC member countries’ imports.
The other issues on the agenda of the meeting include the ratification of the revised treaty and the five conventions, which have been signed as part of the Institutional Programme of CEMAC, the transport issue with Air CEMAC, the rapprochement of the two stock markets of the CEMAC area and the election of a new chairman for the organizing committee of CEMAC.
This 11th ordinary session of the Conference of CEMAC heads of State and government in Brazzaville occurs in the wake of the 23rd ordinary session of the council of ministers of the Economic Union of Central Africa (UEAC), which was held on July 22, 2012 in Brazzaville.
CEMAC, which groups Cameroon, Congo, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and CAR, covers 3,020,144 sq km for a total population of 41.244 million inha