Alweendo chases investors in Canada

The minister of mines and energy, Tom Alweendo, is leading the charge to attract mining investment to Namibia, starting this week off in North America where he participates in the International Mines Ministers' Summit on the mineral industry of the future.This morning Alweendo is to deliver the opening address at the 18th annual Investing in African Mining Breakfast at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto. He has been invited by the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business to MineAfrica's 18th Annual Investing in African Mining Seminar for the rest of the day.In an audio-note the minister shared with local media, he said the event brings an important gathering of producers and policy-makers together. “Yes, Africa is and will remain a mining continent. We will need investors, local and foreign,” he said will be his message to participants.According to Alweendo the international industry needs to look at what benefit mining brings to society. “Is there something we can do more?” he asks. “On the African continent there is inequality and slow growth of the economy. To what extent can we leverage mining for growth in Africa? Shared growth is not only about profits. Serving society and making profits can coexist and they must for business to form a real part of society,” he said. “Of course I will also be marketing Namibia as a destination for mining investment,” he said in the voice-note.Fraser InstituteMeanwhile, the Fraser Institute 2019 Survey of Mining Companies released last week shows that efforts to promote Namibia as a mining destination work are trickling in.The Chamber of Mines of Namibia highlights the Fraser Institute findings that Namibia's score on the investment attractiveness index improved from 56.6 in 2018 to 58.22 in 2019. The policy perception index also improved from 80.71 in 2018, to 87.22 in 2019. Namibia ranked as the most favourable jurisdiction in Africa on this policy perception index, the chamber of mines notes. Chamber economist Lauren Davidson says the Fraser report cites an improvement in the availability of labour and skills, decreased concern with regard to socio-economic and community development conditions, regulatory duplication and inconsistencies, as well as functioning of the legal system.However she warns that survey responses received from Namibia were only between 5 and 9. Validity“The poor response rate calls into question the validity of these scores as there were only a handful of companies that participated which may have skewed perceptions,” she says. The validity is of further concern, noting a generally poor policy environment in 2019, created by the highly unfavourable tax proposal to disallow the deductibility of royalties for non-diamond mining companies, the introduction of consumption levies that are increasing the costs of doing business, and a general feeling of uncertainty with regard to major policy proposals. “While these issues are close to being resolved, it is likely Namibia would have scored lower on the policy perception index if there were a greater number of participants,” she said.augetto@republikein.com.naAugetto Graig –

Alweendo chases investors in Canada

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-19

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Alweendo chases investors in Canada

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-19

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