Minister of Industrialisation and Trade, Lucia Iipumbu, has implored the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) member states to reflect on policy innovations that will enable value addition.

Speaking at a two-day SACU ministerial investment roundtable in Gaborone, Botswana on Tuesday, Iipumbu said there is a need to investigate further opportunities around trade enhancement that will flourish in member states to enable more value addition through the development of regional and bilateral value chains.

The first-ever investment roundtable for SACU aims to showcase investment opportunities in selected priority sectors across the SACU region, such as textiles and clothing; pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and essentials oils, as well as agro-processing, specifically leather and leather products, meat, meat products, fruit and vegetables.

Iipumbu said Namibia aims to mainly participate fully in sectors such as beef, horticulture and agro-processing, noting that the cosmetics and essential oils sector have advanced in terms of production domestically and therefore, participation in the regional value chain is possible.

She indicated that Namibia’s exportable firms increased from five in 2016 to more than 35 by 2021 through concerted efforts by the government and development partners.

“As a region, we need to guard and cover our natural active ingredients sector, which is the bedrock of both the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sector, against undue exploitation. Efforts are needed to reduce the exportation of our natural ingredients in raw form whilst we import large quantities of value-added products thereof,” she said.

Iipumbu equally said the roundtable should deliberate from an industrial policy perspective on how SACU can harness rebates and duty drawbacks to develop the identified value chains further, noting that a key common theme around these investment and business opportunities is the cost structure that points to high tariffs on energy and in certain sectors other inputs.

“A common approach to reducing high input costs must also be investigated from a SACU regional industrial policy perspective. Global production is increasingly carried out through global value chains, therefore SACU needs to ensure that opportunities for trade and investment integration into global value chains are maximised,” said Iipumbu.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency