Business not happy with Ministry’s advice

MOST businesses that approach the Ministry of Trade and Industry for advice, leave disappointed, the latest Namibian Business and Investment Climate Survey (namBiC) has shown.

The 2012 namBiC, released last week, showed that the satisfaction with information received at the Ministry dropped 0,46 in 2011 to minus 0,21 this year. The namBiC scale spans from minus two (not at all satisfied) to plus two (very satisfied).The survey stated that it was the informal sector in particular that regarded the Ministry’s advice as inadequate.The namBiC team interviewed 446 enterprises out all sizes and sectors countrywide.’While respondents are generally not impressed, there are two categories of businesses that stand out. Women and micro enterprises are at least slightly satisfied with the guidance (0,11 and 0,03 respectively). On the other hand, men and small forms are clearly disillusioned (minus 0,5 and minus 0,55 respectively,’ namBiC said.The survey followed on the heels of Trade and Industry Permanent Secretary Malan Lindeque releasing a statement on, among others, the Ministry’s programme to reach out and get input from business.Lindeque said more than 1 222 people in all 13 regions attended Trade and Industry Minister Hage Geingob’s Open Days in 2010.’In addition to bringing the Ministry’s services closer to the people, the overall objective was to create an open platform for the general public and business community to share their experiences and challenges with the Ministry,’ he said.He said entrepreneurs attending the Open Days were helped with issues ranging from business registration, space and plans.The namBiC survey stated that although more businesses engage with the Ministry and respondents are general ‘quite satisfied’ with the meetings in terms of relevance and representation, they ‘are not convinced with the way in which their concerns are addressed’.The satisfaction with actual outcome of public-private dialogue meetings has dropped from 0,26 in 2011 to 0,06 in the 2012 survey. The formal sector is ‘slightly positive’ about the meetings, but the informal sector is ‘dissatisfied’.’The results are a clear indication that public-private dialogues need to be carefully planned, provide substantive inputs and have a clear vision of what should be achieved and how to achieve it,’ namBiC said.’This includes also giving formal, regular feedback to the attendees and the broader business community in general regarding progress with addressing the concerns put forth,’ the survey said.