Business Reporter
THE Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) has finalised the deployment of five Investment and Export Promotion Attachés (IEPA) to strategically selected markets.
This follows the development of the Foreign Representation Framework (FRF) which provides the guiding principles for foreign representation deployment and enables the Board to implement results-driven investment promotion, attraction and facilitation.
The five attachés will assume a regional market representation responsibility and play an oversight role for locally recruited staff and other stakeholders in other countries in their regions to maximize the utilisation of limited resources.
The attachés, who assume their duties on 1 September 2022, will represent the NIPDB in the following regions: Sub-Saharan Africa (Pretoria), Middle East & North Africa (Cairo), Europe (London), Asia Pacific (Beijing) and America (New York).
The attachés are Theresa Sipiho, who will be deployed to Pretoria, Tunga Mboti (Cairo), Tina Andim (Europe), Tokkie Nchindo (Beijing), Lwaba Jario (New York).
Until 2021, the deployment of Commercial Counsellors who focus on all commercial functions was a function undertaken by the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade (MIT).
Then, Commercial Counsellors were posted to various countries with the objective of creating brand awareness for Namibia in foreign markets, generating Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) leads, increasing and improving trade activities between Namibia and those countries, as well as exploring new and expanding existing export markets.
Catherine Shipushu, NIPDB spokesperson, stated that the Attaché postings are aligned with the general provisions of the Foreign Service Rules administered by the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation (MIRCO), and was developed in consultation with the MIT and MIRCO.
“With the NIPDB assuming the role of Namibia’s Investment Promotion Agency (IPA), overseeing the deployment of investment-focused attachés now forms part of the Board’s mandate which necessitated the development of the FRF. The Framework sets clear criteria for IEPA recruitment processes, formulation of IEPA Terms of Reference and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as well as operational and administrative matters. The FRF will be reviewed periodically based on new developments and trends,” Shipushu said.
NIPDB’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nangula Uaandja, indicated that to effectively execute its mandate of FDI attraction, the Board has been developing investor-focused marketing tools that will ensure consistency and performance.
“The NIPDB intends to take a more direct a targeted approach to investment attraction. The attachés will be supported by a technical team who will provide market intelligence that will allow them to target investors in key sectors. This will enable us to target the type of investors we would want to attract to Namibia,” said Uaandja.
The Board is cognisant of the important role that diplomatic missions play in investment promotion and attraction. Accordingly, as part of our stakeholder engagement strategy, the Board has hosted regular information sharing sessions with Namibian Diplomatic Missions on Investment and Trade Promotion, to support missions’ efforts of facilitating economic diplomacy.
