Foreign Affairs needs to get with it

NAMIBIAN diplomatic missions abroad need more direction and increased monitoring of their activities, an opposition Member of Parliament has proposed.

Parliament should also have an oversight function, such as assessing reports coming from the missions, so that Members of Parliament could know what was going on, McHenry Venaani of the DTA party suggested. Venaani tabled a motion on Thursday, requesting the National Assembly to review the current performance of Namibia’s foreign missions and their effectiveness towards the advancement of the country’s development goals.Venaani further proposed that new missions should be opened in key countries such as Japan and Saudi Arabia to comply with geopolitical and economic developments in an ever-changing world.The young DTA politician said Namibia’s foreign missions had become static and needed a change in attitude in order to adapt to the fact that conventional politics had shifted to economic diplomacy in recent years.”The lack of any documented and printed Namibian policy on China, Brazil and India (is the proof) How do we attempt to take centre stage with these emerging economic partners without a chartered diplomatic approach at various fronts with these economies?” Venaani asked.”We lack information from the Foreign Affairs Ministry in this House on important international meetings.Foreign policy cannot remain a secret matter of the State and must be shared where applicable (for Parliament) to further give impetus to the direction in which we are steering world affairs,” Venaani criticised.The Foreign Ministry should keep Members of Parliament abreast of trade opportunities opening up for Namibia internationally and in the southern African region.”South Africa is Namibia’s biggest trading partner with over N$10 billion in trade volume reflected in 80 per cent of imports coming from South Africa.Levels of contact and engagements between senior Cabinet members and especially the trade, tourism, transport and finance ministries should have much closer ties with our neighbour,” Venaani said.Namibian diplomats abroad should be far more active regarding development aid and making foreign investors interested in Namibia, he said.With regard to information technology, he said no breakthrough had been made in providing computer training and equipment to schools.”The only computers donated (by a donor country) were the ones donated by China to the Swapo party,” Venaani said.When a delegation of Namibian MPs visited the Bavarian Parliament in Munich recently, Venaani continued, he was surprised to hear that the Bavarian government had offered training and materials to Namibia’s vocational training sector back in 2005, when Namibia’s Education Minister was visiting Munich.”Yet the Bavarian government is still waiting for a go-ahead (from Namibia) since 2005, How can we work like this and yet claim we are underdeveloped and when countries are opting to assist (Namibia), they are bogged down by red tape and bureaucracy,” Venaani asked.The debate continues this week.Venaani tabled a motion on Thursday, requesting the National Assembly to review the current performance of Namibia’s foreign missions and their effectiveness towards the advancement of the country’s development goals.Venaani further proposed that new missions should be opened in key countries such as Japan and Saudi Arabia to comply with geopolitical and economic developments in an ever-changing world.The young DTA politician said Namibia’s foreign missions had become static and needed a change in attitude in order to adapt to the fact that conventional politics had shifted to economic diplomacy in recent years.”The lack of any documented and printed Namibian policy on China, Brazil and India (is the proof) How do we attempt to take centre stage with these emerging economic partners without a chartered diplomatic approach at various fronts with these economies?” Venaani asked.”We lack information from the Foreign Affairs Ministry in this House on important international meetings.Foreign policy cannot remain a secret matter of the State and must be shared where applicable (for Parliament) to further give impetus to the direction in which we are steering world affairs,” Venaani criticised.The Foreign Ministry should keep Members of Parliament abreast of trade opportunities opening up for Namibia internationally and in the southern African region.”South Africa is Namibia’s biggest trading partner with over N$10 billion in trade volume reflected in 80 per cent of imports coming from South Africa.Levels of contact and engagements between senior Cabinet members and especially the trade, tourism, transport and finance ministries should have much closer ties with our neighbour,” Venaani said.Namibian diplomats abroad should be far more active regarding development aid and making foreign investors interested in Namibia, he said.With regard to information technology, he said no breakthrough had been made in providing computer training and equipment to schools.”The only computers donated (by a donor country) were the ones donated by China to the Swapo party,” Venaani said.When a delegation of Namibian MPs visited the Bavarian Parliament in Munich recently, Venaani continued, he was surprised to hear that the Bavarian government had offered training and materials to Namibia’s vocational training sector back in 2005, when Namibia’s Education Minister was visiting Munich.”Yet the Bavarian government is still waiting for a go-ahead (from Namibia) since 2005, How can we work like this and yet claim we are underdeveloped and when countries are opting to assist (Namibia), they are bogged down by red tape and bureaucracy,” Venaani asked.The debate continues this week.