Gabon: the Minister of the Economy praises the results of his 200 days in office
The Inclusive National Dialogue (DNI) opens Tuesday April 2, seven months after the military takeover. The president of the transition Brice Oligui Nguema promises extensive consultation. For the authorities, it is also the time to draw up, or even boast about, their results, as summarized by the Minister of the Economy Mays Mouissi in a document of around sixty pages, consulted by RFI.
Mays Mouissi, Minister of Economy and Participations of Gabon, in October 2023. © Wikipedia
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The document lists 51 achievements including the lifting of sanctions from the African Development Bank which demonstrates, according to the ministry, a return of donor confidence, or the spectacular increase in tax and customs revenue. However, there has been no increase in the tax base, nor in the tax rate, or even in customs tariffs. Professor of economics Gabriel Zomo Yébé explains this last point by what he calls “the Oligui effect”:
“
For me, the Oligui effect is a psychological effect: it is the fear that the arrival of new authorities has aroused among customs officers who are obviously obliged to do their job correctly, therefore to apply the regulations in force. force. The customs officers were not the only ones concerned, all the Gabonese people started to work
,” observed the teacher.
Prices still high due to lack of competition
As for the fight against the high cost of living, the ministry insists on maintaining subsidies on wheat flour and free public transport. Six consumer products such as beef or pork are presented as being in decline but we must go even further, insists Gabriel Zomo Yebé who deplores the absence of a real competition policy in
Gabon
.
“
It’s good to show this price difference, but we had to justify all that with a good competition policy. The abuse of profit margins, collusion between companies in a quasi-monopoly situation, even the abuse of a dominant position are reprehensible and partly explain the level of high prices in Gabon.
»
The ministry also welcomes the mobilization of 485 billion FCFA on the regional financial market. This should make it possible to finance priority projects and clear part of the domestic debt.
The expectations of the Gabonese? Work
The Inclusive National Dialogue opens this Tuesday, April 2. This is one of the main stages of the transition which began after the military seized power on August 30. What do the Gabonese people expect from this high mass which ends on April 30? Our correspondent
Yves-Laurent Goma
asked them the question in the streets of Libreville.
Jerry Mikandekan, bus loader in the Damas city in the 4th arrondissement, is waiting for resolutions on work: “What we want, what we are looking for, we young Gabonese, is work. We are not weak! Being at home with nothing to do? No, we don't want that. »
Fight against unemployment, but also against the high cost of living and better learning conditions are the main expectations of young people and women: “
That unemployment falls, that the lives of the Gabonese change, that they are finally listened to. We also hope for an end to embezzlement: the theft of public funds is too much,
” explains this young woman. “
Let dialogue focus more on social issues
,” asks one man.
Many Gabonese people are also waiting for a reform of the institutions promised by the military when they took power. “
I expect from this dialogue that there will be strong institutions and not strong men. That is to say, when we decide to serve two mandates, let there be only two and not a third.
»
A few hours before the opening of the dialogue, several people say they have been forgotten and ask President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema to review the list of participants.
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