Angula defends Millennium Compact

The Minister of Works and Transport, Helmut Angula on Wednesday tabled a motion in the National Assembly to ratify the Millennium Challenge Compact between Namibia and the United States of America.

Angula has in the past few weeks faced the Swapo Youth League (SPYL) and the National Union for Namibian Workers (NUNW) claims that the N$2.7 billion agreement is a payoff for Namibian assets such as the Etosha National Park. The Minister has been firm in denying that there is any truth in these claims, and has ignored calls made by the SPYL and NUNW to resign as Minister of Works and Transport.Angula told fellow parliamentarians that Namibia is the 18th country in the developing world to sign a Compact with the MCC.The National Assembly is yet to ratify the MCC, and debate on the matter has been postponed until 23 October.- Nampa Sida to hold workshop on development * The Swedish Trade Council (STC), which will start operations in Namibia from November 1, is planning to hold workshops on development in sectors such as mining, energy, transport and logistics.According to Maria Selin, the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) Country Director for Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Malawi, the workshop will bring together actors from Namibia and Sweden.STC supports Swedish companies in expanding to other countries, and helps them from the first level of identifying markets in countries they are interested to invest in.The workshop will be held after 1 November, when the STC will commence its operations in Namibia.- Nampa Finance crisis may impact on Eskom: Manuel * The global financial crisis may impact on Eskom’s expansion plans, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said yesterday.He said borrowing plans by the power utility would probably be affected.”It’s going to be a lot tougher and may impact on the cost of infrastructure,” Manuel told Business Day newspaper.Construction work ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup could also be affected, he added.”Building costs are a huge threat to what we want to do.I’m not too concerned but we need to be watching it,” said Manuel.Business Day said more than R500 billion have been budgeted to improve transport and power infrastructure.South African banks were equipped to deal with the global financial crisis but they might experience restrictions in terms of access to foreign exchange.Manuel said the crisis would spark a new way of thinking in the financial world.”The bottom line is that in the next while – and it’s not going to be six months or a year but probably two years – there will probably be enormous recalibration of what we do and how we finance it,” said Manuel.- Nampa-SapaThe Minister has been firm in denying that there is any truth in these claims, and has ignored calls made by the SPYL and NUNW to resign as Minister of Works and Transport.Angula told fellow parliamentarians that Namibia is the 18th country in the developing world to sign a Compact with the MCC.The National Assembly is yet to ratify the MCC, and debate on the matter has been postponed until 23 October.- Nampa Sida to hold workshop on development * The Swedish Trade Council (STC), which will start operations in Namibia from November 1, is planning to hold workshops on development in sectors such as mining, energy, transport and logistics.According to Maria Selin, the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) Country Director for Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Malawi, the workshop will bring together actors from Namibia and Sweden.STC supports Swedish companies in expanding to other countries, and helps them from the first level of identifying markets in countries they are interested to invest in.The workshop will be held after 1 November, when the STC will commence its operations in Namibia.- Nampa Finance crisis may impact on Eskom: Manuel * The global financial crisis may impact on Eskom’s expansion plans, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said yesterday.He said borrowing plans by the power utility would probably be affected.”It’s going to be a lot tougher and may impact on the cost of infrastructure,” Manuel told Business Day newspaper.Construction work ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup could also be affected, he added.”Building costs are a huge threat to what we want to do.I’m not too concerned but we need to be watching it,” said Manuel.Business Day said more than R500 billion have been budgeted to improve transport and power infrastructure.South African banks were equipped to deal with the global financial crisis but they might experience restrictions in terms of access to foreign exchange.Manuel said the crisis would spark a new way of thinking in the financial world.”The bottom line is that in the next while – and it’s not going to be six months or a year but probably two years – there will probably be enormous recalibration of what we do and how we finance it,” said Manuel.- Nampa-Sapa