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· The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa is focusing on local timber processing to create more value-added products and generate more jobs.
· It has therefore imposed a ban on the export of logs.
· The measure is set to take effect in January 2022.
The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa is focusing on local timber processing to create more value-added products and generate more jobs. It has therefore imposed a ban on the export of logs. The measure is set to take effect in January 2022. The rules stipulate that primary, secondary, and tertiary wood processing are a priority within member countries. These processes will not only add value to the wood upon export but will also generate a number of jobs.
A meeting of ministers responsible for forests, industry, and the environment in Central Africa was held recently. The attending members validated the decision to ban the export of timber in the form of logs by all countries in the Congo Basin starting January 1, 2022.
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) will be created to establish primary, secondary, and tertiary wood processing industries, modeled on Nkok in Gabon. The ministers also validated the need to create the Regional Committee for the Sustainable Industrialization of the Timber Sector in the Congo Basin (Crib) as well as the regulation on the development of forest plantations.
The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) is composed of six states: Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Equatorial Guinea. The grouping has a total population of approximately 37 million. CEMAC is one of the regional communities in Central Africa created to promote cooperation and exchange among its members.
CEMAC’s main mission is to promote harmonious development in its member states within the framework of a common market. Its objectives are as follows: to strengthen the competitiveness of economic and financial activities by harmonizing the regulations governing them; to ensure convergence towards sustainable economic and financial performance by coordinating economic policies and making national fiscal policies compatible with the common monetary policy; to create a common market based on the free movement of people, goods, capital, and services; to ensure the coordination of national sectoral policies in the following areas: agriculture, livestock, fishing, industry, trade, transport, telecommunications, energy, environment, research, education, and vocational training; to implement joint actions and adopt common policies.