YAOUNDE, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Cameroonian decentralization reform will be a key part in an upcoming national dialogue to end a conflict in the English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest, Cameroonian minister of decentralization and local governance said Tuesday.
"We have been instructed by the prime minister to gather the information we have, so that those who are going to come to the national dialogue will find the solutions and the answers they may have concerning decentralization," George Elanga Obam told reporters after the first ordinary session of the National Council for Decentralization held here.
The government is accelerating the decentralization process in local councils, he said.
"We want to make sure that the real framework that is governing the decentralization process is reviewed so that it can be in accordance with the actual situation," he added.
The decentralization reform, one of the main reforms in Cameroon's public sector, keeps more taxes in the regions and grants greater power to local communities in terms of taxes disposition.
On Sept. 10, Cameroonian President Paul Biya said in an address that the national dialogue scheduled for the end of September will focus on "ways and means of meeting the high aspirations of the people of the Northwest and Southwest regions."
The two Anglophone regions which constitute a minority in largely French-speaking Cameroon has been rocked by a crisis for over two years after armed separatists there declared "independence."
Over 530,000 people have been internally displaced by the conflict, according to the United Nations.
