Namibia strategic gateway location

Last week the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry from Namibia, Honerable Tjekero Tweya, visited the SANEC office in The Hague. The Namibian Ministry of Trade and Industry is committed to stimulating economic growth and employment and to establish Namibia as a gateway location in the Southern African Region.

To this end, the government has introduced numerous incentives that are largely concentrated on stimulating manufacturing in Namibia and prompting exports into the region and the rest of the world, including the Netherlands. Namibia is situated on Africa’s south-western seaboard.  Namibia’s GDP growth is projected to remain moderate at about 4.2% throughout 2013 and the beginning of 2014.  

The interest was expressed to set up a Netherlands-Namibia Business Group. Furthermore, trade & investment relations development and opportunities, including  clustering sector specific programs, were discussed. In particular, agriculture development in Namibia has made significant strides and remains a key sector in the Namibian economy.

However, there is a scope for further development of this sector, particularly in the area of value addition to primary agricultural commodities and optimising market opportunities for processed agro-food products at the domestic, regional and international level.  Talks were therefore conducted with the Netherlands Agro, Food & Technology Centre (NAFTC) with regards to future world food security challenges. Among others, it was discussed how collaborating with Dutch know-how could further develop the agri-business sector in Namibia. For more information please see the presentation.

For more information on how SANEC will develop the Netherlands-Namibia Business Group, please contact Caroline de Bruin at caroline.debruin@sanec.nl or at +31(0)703470781