International Relations and Cooperation Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sierra Leone’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Professor David Francis in key areas of cooperation.

The areas include agriculture, tourism, water, education, fisheries and energy.

In her remarks, Nandi-Ndaitwah said the two countries need to strengthen the bond of friendship and hence the need to continually agree on the way forward, particularly now that Africa has set herself to become an industrialised continent by 2063.

“We must invest in infrastructures that will link the whole continent and consider legal instruments that will facilitate trade in Africa,” she said, adding that the two countries must identify co-areas of cooperation, and elaborate on them.

The cooperation between Namibia and Sierra Leone got strengthened when Namibia gained its independence, and both countries have ambassadors who are accredited to their countries, Nandi-Ndaitwah noted.

On his part, Prof. David said his visit to Namibia is aimed at enhancing the directive made by the two countries Presidents which is to look at key areas of cooperation and to consolidate mortal relations of peace and security development issues in continental Africa.

“This MoU will focus on five key areas of cooperation because we know that Namibia has made tremendous progress in terms of development, with a huge impact on national development and the transformation of the country into a middle-income country,” said Francis.

Francis added that Sierra Leone specifically chose these five key areas to learn from Namibia, as their own country is blessed with mineral resources that are not transformed into anything.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency