Placido Hilukilwa
NAMIBIA is, according to President Nangolo Mbumba, ranked as the second most well-governed country in Africa, the second fastest-growing emerging market for FDI in Africa, and the fifth most peaceful country globally.
President Mbumba, who is currently in China attending the 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit, made these remarks at the Namibia-China High-Level Business Seminar in Beijing on Tuesday morning.
“Namibia’s economic potential is vast,” he said, owing to its unique blend of political stability, friendly people, a conducive business environment, and rich natural resources. “These factors have fueled our economic growth and empowered us to overcome local and external economic challenges,” he added, expressing his delight in addressing the important High-Level Business Forum, “which our Embassy and its partners organized on the sidelines of the 9th FOCAC 2024 Summit.”
President Mbumba highlighted the long-standing bilateral relationship between Namibia and China, stating that “it was built on friendship, mutual benefit, and respect for a brighter shared development future.”
“Our diplomatic relations,” he said, “are governed by the Comprehensive Partnership Agreement between our two countries, which defines Namibia-China relations based on the principles of mutual respect, non-interference in domestic affairs, and the pursuit of shared prosperity.” The President said that, to date, Namibia and China are strong trade partners, with China consistently ranking within Namibia’s top three key export and import markets. He expressed Namibia’s commitment to achieving economic self-reliance.
“In light of that,” he said, “we have embraced Vision 2030, the National Development Plans, and the Harambee Prosperity Plans as strategic and impactful frameworks for industrialization and prosperity. It is our ambition to transition from reliance on the export of raw minerals towards the innovative development and processing of our natural resources into finished products.”
He informed the high-level gathering that since the last FOCAC Summit in 2018, Namibia, under the leadership of the late President Hage Geingob, has intensified the fight against unemployment, poverty, and inequality, paving the way for a brighter future of high-quality development.
Continuing his speech, President Mbumba stressed the importance of connectivity for the movement of people, goods, and services.
“Today, Namibia is ranked first in Africa for its quality of road networks. In that vein, as part of our objective to become a key logistics hub in Southern Africa, Namibia has scaled up significant investments in its port infrastructure, including the construction of a new container terminal at the Port of Walvis Bay to enable efficient and effective processing of high volumes of cargo. Similarly, we are close to completing the Airport Road that connects Hosea Kutako International Airport to the Walvis Bay port, allowing more cargo to and from Namibia and, of course, linking our neighbouring landlocked countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana to global markets.”
He continued: “This Namibia-China High-Level Business Forum, hosted on the sidelines of the 9th FOCAC Summit, presents an excellent opportunity for Namibian and Chinese enterprises to engage and discover the business opportunities on offer in our two countries. Chinese enterprises, working hand in hand and in joint ventures with Namibian entrepreneurs, can take advantage of these opportunities for mutual benefit. We require strategic partners from the People’s Republic of China with the requisite technology, skills, know-how, and capital to work with us to transform the Namibian economy from primary production to a fully industrialized, knowledge-based, technologically advanced, high value-added economy.”
“There is no reason why you should not choose Namibia. The largest Chinese investment in Africa is in Namibia, represented by China General Nuclear (CGN), also known as Swakop Uranium, operating the Husab Mine, and China National Uranium Group of CNNC. Both these and others make Namibia the 3rd largest producer of uranium worldwide, which is beneficial for the economic growth of our two countries.”
He also mentioned other investments, such as Namibia’s largest cement manufacturing company, Ohorongo Cement, which was acquired by West China Cement Group in 2020. In 2023, Huayou Cobalt Group of China invested in a lithium development project in Namibia, and recently, China’s Sino-Mine Resources Group invested in acquiring a major copper smelting and processing facility in Tsumeb. Similarly, Yintai Gold of China is finalizing its investment in the Twin Hill Gold mine project in Namibia.
“These are just some testimonials of Chinese companies investing in Namibia, showing great confidence in the country’s economic growth. I, therefore, invite you all to come and do business in Namibia. I look forward to fruitful networking at this important event as we embrace Namibia-China friendship based on win-win cooperation.”
