Cameroon’s First Couple visits Tianjin today

After two days of a crowded schedule in Beijing, President Paul Biya and First Lady Chantal Biya will spend the last day of their State visit in the seaport city of Tianjin.

After two days of a crowded schedule in Beijing, President Paul Biya and First Lady Chantal Biya will spend the last day of their State visit in the seaport city of Tianjin. Two important locations in this growing industrial city will be of paramount interest to Cameroon’s First Couple. Arriving at the Tianjin train station after a thirty minutes journey by a high speed train (TGV), the Presidential Couple will drive straight to the Museum of Planification situated within the Tianjin exposition centre of urban planning. Another appointment in the city will be with the Mayor, expected to end with a lunch offered by the host. Later in the afternoon, President Paul Biya and wife will visit the “Airbus Tianjin Final Assembly” company.

The assembly factory of Airbus in China is a major industrial complex in Tianjin city. Built in June 2008, the Tianjin Airbus factory has rolled out fifty A319 and A320 Airbus planes since inception. With a human resource capacity of about four hundred and seventy employees, the factory produces wings and other seven parts of the Airbus and imports the rest from Europe before assembling them into a complete jet. President Paul Biya will be the first African leader to visit the factory that has already hosted many other foreign Heads of State.

Audiences

The visit to Tianjin will draw curtains on the three-day State visit of President Paul Biya to China. Day two of the visit yesterday was exclusively reserved for audiences in Beijing. A total of ten Chinese enterprises were on the audience roster of President Paul Biya at his residence in Beijing. The companies were all investors or potential investors in Cameroon in the telephone, telecommunication, engineering, hydro-electric mineral exploitation and banking sectors.

Top Executives of Huawei Technologies, Sinohydro Corporation, China Harbor Engineering, ZTE Cameroon, CAM, IRON, Group Datang, China Development Bank, China Railway Construction and others were granted audience by the Head of State. The Cameroon destination as a fertile ground for investment was the hub around which the discussions revolved. A Sino-Cameroon tourism outfit dubbed «China to Africa» led by its President Francoise Kameni Lele was also received in audience. Some members of government accompanied the President during the audiences.

Since some of the Chinese Companies were in the telecommunication sector, CAMTEL General Manager, Nkotto Emane and Minister of Post and Telecommunication, Biyiti Bi Essam were part of more than one audience. The various top executives of the Chinese companies told the press after their audience that President Paul Biya stressed deadlines and expressed concern for the collective good of Cameroonians. The improvement of the quality of life of a vast majority of Cameroonians remains a main pre-occupation of President Paul Biya and this left a positive impression on all the economic operators received in audience yesterday.

Three other audiences took place yesterday before the end of the day. The President had audiences with the President of the Peoples National Assembly, Wu Bangguo at the Great Hall Of The People and with the Prime Minister Wen Jiabao at the Zhongnanhai Building.

He later received in audience at the State Guest House, the African Diplomatic Corps in China. After an exhausting day, President Paul Biya was represented personally at the meeting with Cameroonians resident in China scheduled for the Embassy in Beijing.

Minister in charge of duties at the Presidency and Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPDM, Rene Sadi stood in for the Head of State. Minister Rene Sadi read the Speech of the President to his Compatriots and handed over the gift from the Head of State to the gathering.

He announced that the twenty thousand dollars gift was a symbolic present from the President Paul Biya to his compatriots gathered at the embassy premises yesterday evening. In an earlier address, the Spokesperson of the Cameroon Diaspora in China, called on President Paul Biya to present his candidacy for the next Presidential elections.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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