Anti-corruption conference ends

THE three-day national conference on corporate governance and anti-corruption held in Windhoek closed on Wednesday.

Closing the conference, Minister of Justice Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana said such forums were instrumental in creating a platform for the exchange of ideas, sharing of experiences and generally to sound a clarion call to society that Namibia was committed to deal with corruption and to establish a culture of good corporate governance. She said economic growth in markets that do not have well-regulated business environments could easily lead to mismanagement, corruption, loss of shareholder control, loss of investor confidence and loss of stakeholder confidence, resulting ultimately in a costly and risky business environment.She added that Namibia did not intend to go down this route, hence the Government and private industry must learn to engage in more constructive dialogue on corporate governance to broaden the participation of all in the economic life of the country, she said.Iivula-Ithana said such dialogue would also enhance local and foreign investments in the economy.”However, for us to succeed as a country, we need to realise that private corporations are just as vulnerable as public corporations.Local corporations are just as vulnerable as foreign corporations.One-sided and skewed approaches will only expose the other side as a haven for unbecoming practices,” she said.-NampaShe said economic growth in markets that do not have well-regulated business environments could easily lead to mismanagement, corruption, loss of shareholder control, loss of investor confidence and loss of stakeholder confidence, resulting ultimately in a costly and risky business environment.She added that Namibia did not intend to go down this route, hence the Government and private industry must learn to engage in more constructive dialogue on corporate governance to broaden the participation of all in the economic life of the country, she said.Iivula-Ithana said such dialogue would also enhance local and foreign investments in the economy.”However, for us to succeed as a country, we need to realise that private corporations are just as vulnerable as public corporations.Local corporations are just as vulnerable as foreign corporations.One-sided and skewed approaches will only expose the other side as a haven for unbecoming practices,” she said.-Nampa