Cameroon: National Assembly adopts 6 bills in March 2016

The bills are expected to spur economic growth. The First Ordinary Session of Parliament, which started on March 10, 2016, wraps up today April 8, 2016, with a total of six bills adopted. Members of the Senate and the National Assembly can beat their chests for a successful session that saw the adoption of bills concerning mostly the economy, trade and tourism. One of the bills is to authorize the President of the Republic to ratify the Agreement on Trade Facilitation concluded on December 7, 2013, in Bali, Indonesia, during the 9th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The bill aims at easing border procedures of member States so as to facilitate import and export operations. Members of both Houses also adopted the bill regulating external trade in Cameroon during the one-month long session. The bill seeks to spur economic growth by adopting the principle of freedom to import or export, subject to some restrictions. The explanatory statement also indicates that the bill will protect domestic production by combating unfair trade practices such as dumping. Another bill that saw the approval of parliament is that to ratify the 23 December 2015 Ordinance to amend and supplement some provisions of the 16 December 2013 Law governing Economic Zones in Cameroon.

The purpose of the ordinance was to extend by a three-year transitional period for enterprises formally registered under industrial free zone regime to be transferred to economic zone regime. The tourism sector will henceforth receive a boost following the adoption of a bill on tourism and leisure activities in Cameroon. The bill, which seeks to correct shortfalls of the 1998 Law will ease conditions for carrying out tourist activities and identify measures aimed at controlling clandestine activities, amongst others.

As for the bill to amend and supplement some provisions of the 2015 Finance Law, it emerged that it was necessitated by certain events such as the renewal of licenses of two mobile telephone companies which generated more revenue, the restructuring of the National Refining Company (SONARA), the start of Three- Emergency Plan and 2016/2019 African Cup of Nations preparations. All these had a bearing on the initial 2015 State budget. The African Charter bill on Statistics also adopted underscores statistics as an indispensable tool for decision-making process.