Overview

The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), created by Treaty in March 1994, began operations in 1999. The Community includes: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad.

The primary mission of CEMAC is to promote harmonised development in its member states in the framework of a common market. Its objectives are to:
 

• strengthen competitiveness of economic and financial activities by harmonising regulations that govern them;
• ensure the convergence toward sustainable economic and financial performance by coordinating economic policies and rendering national budgetary policies consistent with the common monetary policy;
• create a common market based on free mobility of persons, goods, capital and services;
• assure coordination of national sector policies in the following areas: agriculture, livestock, fishing, industry, commerce, transport, telecommunications, energy, environment, research, education and professional training; implement common actions and adopt common policies.

The specialized organisms of CEMAC are large of which  ISSEA (Institut Sous-Régional de Statistique et d’Économie Appliquée), EIED (Ecole inter Etats des Douanes), ISTA (Institut Sous – Régional Multisectoriel de Technologie Appliquée, de Planification et d'Evaluation des Projets).

The Commission de la CEMAC is responsible for preparing the documentation necessary for the multilateral monitoring system. For this, reliable socio-economic data are necessary to evaluate national performances and to compare domestic situations in the sub-region. To this end, the Commission de la CEMAC aims at improving the quality and harmonisation of statistics of member states, as well as extending their scope.

Statistical Activities

Statistical activities include strengthening of institutional and technical capacity in the areas of nationals accounts, prices and balance of payments, with the aim of improvising regional integration in central Africa as well as the identification of gaps in the areas of external trade, public finances, national accounts, prices and the organisation of regional training workshops and on-site training to respond to these gaps.

A Sub-Regional Statistics Committee, created in 2001, is responsible for making recommendations on behalf of member states. At the end of 2007, the council of Ministers adopted a regulation concerning the creation, organisation and functioning of a sub-regional fund for statistics.

Received August 2010