Building partnerships

NDAMA NAKASHOLESADC’s director of industrial development and trade, Tapiwa Simanga, says the week also facilitates advocacy on the need to improve the business environment for a competitive manufacturing sector.The third annual SADC Industrialisation Week is taking place in Windhoek this week, ahead of the SADC Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government from 17 to 18 August, where Namibia will take over as chair of the regional organisation.“The forum stands to offer an important platform for governments in the region to engage the private sector on critical steps needed to leverage higher levels of investment in manufacturing,” Simanga said.The expected outcome is a significant impact on broader socio-economic development objectives such as employment creation, technology transfer and wealth creation.UnificationSamanga reiterated the importance of regional integration. He said that individually SADC countries are small and weak but collectively they can become a bigger market and a stronger entity.“In essence, what we have been doing has been more on the regional cooperation side than on integration. We have now to take on the path of regional integration in earnest,” he saidIt is not easy because there will be sacrifices to be made, some of which would even affect member states’ sovereignty, he added.Trading partnersHe added that lack of industrialisation is one of the reasons why intra-SADC and intra-African trade figures remain low. “Intra-SADC trade, though fluctuating, has constituently remained around a paltry 10% low compared to other regions like the South-East Asian nations (24%) and the European Union (40%) while intra-African trade has remained at around 15% of Africa’s total trade over the past decade.”This, he said, implies that 90% of trade in SADC is with the rest of the world, while it is 86% in the case of Africa.OpportunitiesThe minister of industrialisation, trade and SME development, Tjekero Tweya, said in his opening remarks that the exhibition was well organised to promote business, trade and investment in the country and SADC at large.He also said that the platform enables companies operating in various industries to display their latest products and services, learn about the activities of other businesses, examine markets and identify business opportunities.“It is worth noting that exhibitions are very important events that bring producers and suppliers of goods and services as well as potential customers together to provide the necessary exposure and opportunities for sales and business linkages,” he said.HistoryThis is the third annual SADC Industrialisation Week since 2016, when the SADC Council of Ministers agreed to hold it as an annual regional public-private engagement platform aimed at fostering new opportunities for intra-regional trade and investment.The first and second events were held in Swaziland and South Africa.The theme of this year’s event is ‘Promoting Infrastructure and Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development’.

Building partnerships

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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Building partnerships

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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