The Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade on Saturday commenced with public consultations on the national policy on sustainable special economic zones (SEZs) considered a key priority area of government to promote national economic growth.
Officially opening the public consultations which started in Windhoek, Minister of Industrialisation and Trade Lucia Iipumbu said SEZs provide an effective microeconomic environment where private enterprise development may be conducive, whilst at the general environment general business-friendly conditions may not all be optimal. So this specific micro space carved out through benign policy then ensure fertile ground to kick-start private sector development as well as employment creation.
She said SEZ are part of the country’s economic arsenal to induce and imbue structural transformation. They are therefore not a magic bullet, and Namibia needs to ensure strategic smart partnership and dedicate major efforts are discussed to ensure a Namibian SEZ regime’s success.
‘These smart and strategic partnerships are universal across all the spheres that govern our societal tapestry – it can be public-private, it can be private, it can be government to government. We should therefore ensure that we discuss critical matters today. Our discussion should look at ascertain full political and policy support through the policy and assessing the right legal and regulatory environment,’ said Iipumbu.
She said there is also a need to ventilate through the platform aspects on how the country can synergize and align various interests and mandates of all players that are found in a SEZ.
‘The elephant in the room pertaining to the matter of benefits and fiscal and non-fiscal incentives within a SEZ regime. To this end, we have in the policy provided for a generic incentive regime, which through public consultations needs to be segmented by sector. At this juncture, it is also critical to remind ourselves that we should not allow for a SEZ incentive regime that would lead to undesirable and unsustainable investment behaviours,’ stated Iipumbu.
The consultations will proceed to Walvis Bay as well as other towns.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
