The Sunday News
NAMIBIA is looking forward to partner local poultry farmers in a bid to start producing poultry products on a large scale as a way of reducing dependency on imports, as the country continues to foster economic co-operation with Zimbabwe.
Speaking on Namibia’s participation at the 56th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, Ministry of Trade and Industry chief investment promotion officer who was part of the 25-member delegation that comprised businesspeople, Mr Oscar Sikanda said the poultry industry in Namibia was being done on a very small scale hence their wish was to increase it so as to reduce their dependency on imports.
Mr Sikanda said Namibia was here to clinch business deals and was looking towards shifting its co-operation with Zimbabwe to an economic level in order to increase business between the two countries.
In 1992, the two countries signed a bilateral preferential trade agreement which provides for the exclusion of customs duty for goods with 25 percent local content.
“Our aim was to have a meaningful engagement with the Zimbabwean businesspeople and visit local poultry farms and a farm producing chicken feed to explore areas of co-operation.
Namibia has a lot of trade and investment opportunities which Zimbabwean companies can explore,” said Mr Sikanda.
He said some of the products include Namibian brewed beer, Windhoek lager, fish and salt and that being a landlocked country, Zimbabwe could benefit from Namibia’s deep water port of Walvis Bay, roads and logistical infrastructure as a gateway to the rest of the world.
Mr Sikanda urged Zimbabwean businesspeople to also consider investing in Namibia as most of their investment areas were open to foreign investors and easily accessible due to transparent facilitation services provided to all investors.
He said his ministry would continue to promote trade and investment especially in the areas of manufacturing and value addition as well as to diversify the export market.
“Namibia and Zimbabwe enjoy political co-operation and we need to shift it to economic co-operation level in order to increase business activities between the two countries. Namibia has a lot to offer in the areas of agriculture, tourism and transport/logistics,” he said.
The Namibian delegation expressed satisfaction over the exhibition at which they participated in previous years including 2012 and 2013 and said the ZITF was one of the regional fairs that they highly regarded in the SADC region.
During the fifth session of the Zimbabwe-Namibia joint permanent commission, the two countries signed three agreements aimed at strengthening bilateral trade and investment ties between them.
These agreements are bilateral air services agreement, a revised preferential trade agreement as well as a memorandum of understanding on forestry management.
The revised Preferential Trade Agreement includes Namibia’s offer to Zimbabwe for a Dry Port Facility at Walvis Bay, the easy establishment of businesses in Namibia by Zimbabwean investors and an agreement on double taxation.
The delegation from Namibia comprised business people from the agriculture sector namely agro processing, poultry and logistics as well as government representatives and representatives from state-owned enterprises.
Representatives from the Namibian embassy also attended the exhibition.
