Trade says Investment Bill to front-load SMEs
Fostering a culture of entrepreneurship
The proposed Investment and Promotion Facilitation Bill is seen as a tool to promote small businesses.
The tabling of the Investment and Promotion Facilitation Bill will not only help front-load micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), but will help foster a culture of entrepreneurship in Namibia. This is according to ministry of industrialisation deputy executive director Michael Humavindu, who said the government should make concerted efforts to support MSMEs to foster a business culture within the country.
Humavindu made the remarks during a recent Standard Bank engagement held to discuss the role of MSMEs in Namibia.
“In Namibia, we do not promote complete bans in our Investment Bill. We have put thresholds to say, any retail activity up to N$7 million for example, is reserved for Namibians, because we also want foreign direct investment to come, especially at the large scale, because of technology transfer skills,” he said.
It was up to the government to now find ways and means to build toward an entrepreneurial culture here.
“The fact that we have a low entrepreneurial culture means we have to be practical in terms of efforts to support that. There is a low entrepreneurial culture in this country; we do not foster an entrepreneurial culture and part of our efforts as the government is to mainstream the new Investment Bill,” Humavindu said.
Escalate trade policies
According to him, it was an opportune time for Namibia to escalate its trade policies.
“Trade policy must be at the level of our industrial policy and ambitions and it must support enterprise development,” the deputy executive director said.
Meanwhile, industrialisation minister Lucia Iipumbu earlier this year said the Namibia Investment Promotion and Facilitation Bill is expected to be promulgated this year. She made the announcement during the tabling of her ministry’s budget in the National Assembly.
The Bill, which has been in the works since 2016, intends to provide for the promotion of sustainable economic development and growth through the mobilisation and attraction of foreign and domestic investment to enhance economic development, reduce unemployment, accelerate growth and diversify the economy.
“The Namibia Investment Promotion and Facilitation Bill is expected to be promulgated in this financial year, and encompasses the treatment and support for domestic and foreign investors. It provides for sector reservations for Namibian investors,” Iipumbu said at the time.