Forward with industrialisation agenda

It is indeed refreshing to read that Namibia will soon welcome its first vehicle assembly plant after French automaker Groupe PSA announced this week that it will set up shop at Walvis Bay. The carmaker will assembly the Opel Grandland X and the Peugeot 3008 for its southern African market, and will partner with the Namibia Development Corporation, who will take up a 49% stake in the plant. Assembly will start in the second half of 2018 with an annual targeted volume of 5 000 units by 2020 to meet satisfy the demand in countries belonging to the Southern African Customs Union, Groupe PSA said. There have also been talks that an Iranian company is also finalising a contract to roll out a tractor assembly plant, either in Windhoek or Walvis Bay. These two large-scale investments will definitely be a great shot in the arm for our economy given the tough climate we are currently operating in. These investments will create the much-need jobs and will augur well for skills transfer. Namibia must position herself to be one of the biggest recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the coming years. We have maintained political and economic stability for the past 28 years and there is no reason why we cannot succeed in achieving high economic growth going forward. Coupled with investments in the infrastructure sector, government must take the lead in driving the industrialisation agenda across the country. Finance minister Calle Schlettwein recently announced, during the tabling of the 2018/19 national budget, that government has increased the revised development budget of N$5.6 billion 2017/18 to N$7.3 billion this year and N$8.2 billion by 2020/21 in the hope of boosting industrialisation. This is good news and it is our sincere hope that such resources would be optimally utilised, especially in ensuring sustainable jobs. The government has an important role to play in the economic activity of any nation and it is essential that the welfare of citizens is not compromised by poor prioritisation and allocation of resources that tend to benefit only the elite.