YAOUNDE, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The decentralization reform in Cameroon will "significantly" boost development in the 360 local councils of the country, Cameroon's Prime Minister and Head of Government, Joseph Dion Ngute said Wednesday.
"The reform is aimed at giving a new impetus to local development. The dynamism of the Cameroonian youth will find in the councils, a privileged ground of expression. There will be decisive opportunities for local development," Ngute said in the capital, Yaounde, at the start of a two-day first ever General Conference of Local Councils in Cameroon.
The conference, according to Ngute, will lay the groundwork for "effective decentralization" in the country.
"This exercise is intended to prepare councils to take full control and play its role. Government wants to make councils a veritable platform for multiple opportunities for the population," he said.
Council authorities have requested a 10% of state budget and adequate human resources to facilitate effective implementation of the reform.
The decentralization reform, one of the key reforms of Cameroon's public sector, keeps more taxes in the regions and grants greater power to local communities in terms of taxes disposition.
During his address to the nation in December last year, President Paul Biya pledged to take measures "as soon as possible" to give the local communities the powers that "would enable them to play a greater role in the management of local affairs"
Cameroon hopes that, the effective implementation of decentralization will solve the crisis in the two English-speaking regions of the country, where separatists have been fighting to create a new nation after complaining of "systematic marginalization."
"If this is effective, it will give the Anglophones some sort of autonomy over management of their activities," political analyst, Jones Nforba told Xinhua.
