Namibia shows signs of growth - NHRP

By: SELMA SHIPANGA

THE National Planning Commission (NPC) yesterday launched the National Human Resources Plan (NHRP) which states that Namibia showed signs of constant growth in secondary and tertiary industries indicating its capacity to sustain an industrial economy.

Namibia is striving to become an industrialised country by 2030.
The NHRP was formulated and its associated implementation tools shall guide the government, private sector, civic organisations and training institutions invest in industries with high growth and employment potential and into critical skills to meet the current and emerging developmental challenges.
The NHRP document states that tertiary industries are the biggest contributors to employment thus indicating the potential for an up-skilling of the labour force.
“Various government initiatives, combined with its commitment to creating a favourable business climate, with adequate social justice policies, are strong foundations for the country’s economic development,” it reads.
The country’s enabling sectors including health and education, as well as manufacturing, agriculture and tourism sectors are also expected to sustain the growth of the Namibian economy and continue to significantly contribute to employment.
It however outlines that these signs of opportunities are threatened by a number of social and economic issues such as unequal distribution of resources among regions, widespread poverty and inequality, persisting labour market segmentation, unfair competition with countries in the region and worldwide recession.
“Namibia’s potential for economic and employment growth is further hindered by the existence of mismatches between supply and demand of skilled workers, the opportunity cost of employment, labour regulations, low levels of labour productivity in the manufacturing sector, insufficient investment in sustainable rural development, and gender, age and geographic disparities,” it reads.
The document further states that Namibia’s labour market lacks enough flexibility to unleash the potential of its workforce and as a result, the inadequately educated workforce is identified as the most problematic factor for investing in Namibia.
Human resources development and institutional capacity building are identified as some of the prerequisite strategic objectives for achieving Vision 2030, and for the implementation of the national development plans.
“Human resources planning in Namibia will have to go hand-in-hand with economic development plans to ensure that education and training investments return in the form of increased employment,” it reads.
“Investments in tourism and agriculture seem to be more likely to produce a real demand for which the education and training sectors ought to be prepared. In other sectors, including the enabling ones, employers ought to participate in the planning process in order to assure goals, strategies and targets are feasible and measurable against the Vision 2030’s overall purpose.”
The objectives of the NHRP include the identification of sectors with high potential for employment creation and economic growth, as well as the identification and development of the skills and qualifications required in the labour market by sector and sub-sector of the economy by time frames.
Other objectives include developing technical  as well as managerial skills and technological know-how, and to develop the knowledge required to achieve the country’s long-term vision of having a knowledge-based society.
“By differentiating supply and demand mismatches from technology, research and  innovation gaps, the NHRP will address the skills deficit alongside the need to diversity the economy,” the NPC said.

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