Take Risks For 2030
ALLOW me a column in your balanced newspaper to share my views with fellow members of the public regarding Namibia’s solo voyage to 2030.
The road to 2030 seems to reveal less light at the end of its tunnel given the uncertainties due to the inability to enhance stronger political will to curb corruption and to have a well-defined starting point.
By 2030 Namibia is expected to join the club of industrialised nations, but the starting point towards this social and economic metamorphosis which is closely related to innovation has been fragile.
How do we embark upon an industrial revolution? Most would argue that is by firstly educating our young people, but for how long and to what extent? The starting point that Namibia chose was to educate its young people that would be the driving engine in this industrial project but since then, nobody knows how long it will be before they start taking up tools.
Simultaneously, some of our much needed engineer graduates and other professionals who are supposed to play a critical role in the vision are today struggling to find jobs and some don’t even end up getting employed at all. The setting up of industrial factories has been very slow if any were set up, which raises fear that we are flying without wings.Yet we continue to educate and train young Namibians locally and internationally to come to work in dream factories so some graduates end up doing jobs different to what they had been trained for.
Rome wasn’t built in one day, we need to start from simple to complex as far as Vision 2030 is concerned, we should start building small factories, identify potential markets and take in these young graduates so that they start making things happen even by manufacturing screwdrivers for exampleWe don’t need the entire workforce to have bachelor’s degrees in order to do this.
Take for instance building a boat that can float on water; you mainly need about three designers (naval architects), three marine engineers for machinery installation, two electrical engineers and at least one electronic engineer and the rest of the workforce can be semi-skilled. Where there is skills shortage, we seek assistance and this is a normal thing that even India, which is in a successful process of industrialisation, still relies on foreign experts where it lacks their own. So we need to have confidence in our own people, in ourselves and be ready to take risks if we are really honest and serious about vision 2030.
Aaron Shitayi
By e-mail