By Ndumbe Bell Gaston in Douala
Syndimac a trade union that protects and advances the interest of the construction sector dealing with the importation, local production and distribution of iron and derivative products, coorganised a workshop with the Chamber of Commerce Douala bringing to convergence all stakeholders of the sector, to share views and recommend to government certain solution that can bring about greater equity among it’s actors.
The issues were hotly discussed at the chamber’s precincts last Thursday, February 1, 2017 where distributors of iron-based construction products; imported or home-made, have always been at daggers drawn with final consumers on quality products which have constantly resulted in the collapse of highrise and others structures in mostly urban areas and beyond.
To avoid the risk of constant litigation of stakeholders both private and public, SYNDIMAC called on their public partners like Labogenie, Anor, Mincommerce and the Ministry of Finance to each play their respective roles and guarantee or ensure fair competition , quality control and appealed to their constant intervention, to sanitise their activities.
The representative of the President of SYNDIMAC, Gaston Nemadu who is the Executive Secretary and a functionary of Batimaide, explained that they are appealing to the Chamber of Commerce to come to their rescue after having made several attempts to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce and special services of the Prime minister’s office but many of their concerns have fallen on deaf ears.
When asked about the harmonization of the price of iron since the 2016 drop in world prices, he answered that since then there have been a change after discussions of a fiscal and customs nature on conditions to harmonise the trade. However, the major local producers and small holders have benefitted from some government favours.
What is at stake now, the Executive Secretary added, is the need for the industrialization process to have the confidence and more access to the final consumers. So, they need to improve on the quality of this products but the trade union has found out that the market is largely unprofitable because those in charge of controls of quality like Labogenie, Anor, the Ministry of Commerce, among others have not been involved in stringent and regular controls in the industrialization and distribution process to make the products attractive to the final consumer and to instill confidence and growth in the sector. Among these concerns, there are issues of injustice and security where importers seem to have the upper hand because of the controls that they must go through, so more controls are needed domestically.
“When we talk of injustice, continued Gaston, it’s because before creating the industrial plant, the sector’s entrepreneurs made agreements on certain favorable conditions with government or their agencies which are usually not applied or realized. We know these things because of the complaints from the public against our distributors by consumers or by our distributors who inform us. So as I said earlier, after this sitting, we shall be recommending that our public stakeholders get involved in stringent and not opportunistic controls”
In a press briefing with the Chamber’s Vice-president, Protais Ayangma, he stated that they will play the Chamber’s traditional role of finding solutions for enterprises by recommending to “create more equity in this business sector as far as the local actors and partners are concerned. The other important solution would be for us to ask Labogenie and Anor to carry out more controls. Consumers are not very happy with the quality of the goods because of the absence of stringent controls at all stages”.