Minister of Industrialisation and Trade, Lucia Iipumbu, has emphasised the importance of a fully integrated continental free trade area, noting that it will address some of the impediments to intra-Africa trade.
Iipumbu, in a speech read on her behalf at the opening of the Discover Namibia Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Township Economy Investment Expo and Intra-Africa Business Conference taking place in Swakopmund, highlighted multiple and overlapping memberships and high tariffs as some of the impediments hampering free-trade.
The minister explained that the intra-Africa trade dream can only be realised if all African members states commit to improve the systems and processes to ensure enhanced trade facilitation.
“The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is expected to create a very good opportunity, to increased value addition and establishment of viable and competitive industries in the continent that could create a lot of employment opportunities for our people, especially the youth,” she noted.
Iipumbu added that Namibia is currently in the final stage of reviewing its investment policy, in order to come up with a better framework for attracting investment, by phasing out Economic Processing Zone, and replacing it with Special Economic Zone.
The process, which according to the minister is almost concluded, is aimed at providing for the designation of certain economic sectors and business activities as reserved for certain categories of investors, as well as an establishment of an entity responsible for investment promotion.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative to Namibia, Alka Bhatia, said the UNDP is convinced that if dedicated support is deployed at scale to effectively capacitate the informal sector and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Namibia stands to maximise positive development gains from the AfCFTA.
“Therefore, the UNDP, working as the integrator of the UN system, has been working in partnership and conjointly with MIT and Namibia Trade Forum, to enhance awareness on AfCFTA.”
Source: The Namibian Press Agency