Rarely during the current legislative mandate has the business of lawmaking solicited so many discussions in and out of the hemicycle.

As curtains were drawn over the Second Ordinary Session of the 2016 legislative year, members of both chambers in Parliament left with satisfaction that the four bills they had adopted were properly examined.

The bill submitted by government to revise the 50-year old Penal Code was the focus of attention during the.

Defended by the Minister of State, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Laurent Esso, highlighted the need for government to adapt the administration of criminal justice to the prevailing security environment, tame new unwanted social behaviour while integrating timely dispensations contained in a multitude of international legal instruments and agreements that Cameroon has ratified.

In its strive for economic emergence and the need to seek alternative funding for the economy, government, through Finance Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey, convinced the representatives of the people in the National Assembly and the Senate that the Douala Stock Exchange will wake up from slumber.

By adopting the bill governing undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities, Parliament has given a more visible role to stockbrokers to channel savings into financial markets where government and the private sector could raise funding for key investment projects.

Diplomacy was not left out with lawmakers giving their approval to the Head of State to open the Yaounde-Rome axis by ratifying the agreement between the government of the Republic of Italy and that of the Republic of Cameroon on the reciprocal abolition of the short-stay visa requirement for holders of diplomatic or service passports.

Equally, the adoption of the bill authorizing the ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement gives government the necessary leverage needed to address the need to join other countries to prevent the nefarious effects of climate change.