Paul Toungui
Encyclopedia
Paul Toungui is a Gabon
Gabon
Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

ese politician. He has served in the government of Gabon since 1990 and is currently the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, La Francophonie, and Regional Integration.

Political career

Toungai was born in Okonja, located in Haut-Ogooué Province in southeastern Gabon, and studied mathematics, earning a degree in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. He was Director-General of the Institute of the Economy and Finance from 1983 to 1990. Standing as a candidate of the Gabonese Democratic Party
Gabonese Democratic Party
The Gabonese Democratic Party , is the ruling and dominant political party of Gabon. Its motto is Dialogue, Tolerance, Peace.It has held power since independence, first under Léon M'ba , then under Omar Bongo...

 (PDG) in the 1990 parliamentary election, he was elected to the National Assembly of Gabon
National Assembly of Gabon
The National Assembly of Gabon is the lower house of the Parliament of Gabon. It has 120 members, 111 members elected for a five year term in single-seat constituencies and 9 members appointed by the President.-Latest results:...

. In the same year, he joined the government as Minister of Finance and the Budget, holding that post until March 1994.

From March 1994 to January 2002, Toungui was Minister of Mines, Energy and Oil; he was assigned additional responsibility for hydraulic resources in January 1999, and in January 2001 he was promoted to the rank of Minister of State. He was re-elected to the National Assembly as a PDG candidate in the 1996 parliamentary election and the 2001 parliamentary election. Following the latter election, Toungui was moved to the post of Minister of State for the Economy, Finance, the Budget, and Privatization on 27 January 2002.

In the December 2006 parliamentary election
Gabonese legislative election, 2006
A legislative election was held in Gabon on 17 December 2006 ....

, he was elected to the National Assembly as the PDG candidate in Okonja constituency. After nearly seven years as Finance Minister, Toungui was instead appointed as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, La Francophonie, and Regional Integration on 7 October 2008. He succeeded Laure Olga Gondjout
Laure Olga Gondjout
Laure Olga Gondjout is a Gabonese politician. She has served in the government since 2006 and is currently the Minister of Communication, Posts, Telecommunications, and New Information Technologies....

 as Foreign Minister on 9 October.

After President Omar Bongo
Omar Bongo
El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba , born as Albert-Bernard Bongo, was a Gabonese politician who was President of Gabon for 42 years from 1967 until his death in office in 2009....

 died in June 2009 and his son Ali Bongo was elected to succeed him, Toungui was retained as Foreign Minister in Ali Bongo's first government, appointed on 17 October 2009. He kept his position despite a wave of dismissals of other long-serving ministers and key officials. Having survived Ali Bongo's initial reworking of the government, he was its longest-serving minister, with nearly two decades of continuous experience.

Personal life

Toungui is the son-in-law of Omar Bongo, who was President of Gabon from 1967 to 2009; he married Bongo's daughter, Pascaline Bongo
Pascaline Bongo Ondimba
Pascaline Mferri Bongo Ondimba is a Gabonese politician. Under her father, President Omar Bongo, she was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1991 to 1994 and Director of the Cabinet of the President of the Republic from 1994 to 2009...

, in 1995.
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