We have failed for 28 years – Tweya

TRADE and industrialisation minister Tjekero Tweya says the government has dismally failed to deliver on industrialisation of the country since independence.

Tweya said this at the opening of the annual Southern African Development Community (SADC) industrialisation week in Windhoek yesterday.

The three-day event aims to provide a platform for information dissemination on the SADC industrialisation strategy and a road map for all stakeholders, including decisions taken on political and security situations in SADC member states and the African Union.

The annual event also acts as a platform for regional public-private engagement to foster new opportunities for intra-regional trade and investment in the region.

During the event, Tweya said the government had also failed to put policies in place to facilitate easier trade between Namibia and other countries in SADC and the rest of the world.

Instead, he said the government has been making policies and laws to “lock everyone out”, which he said hinders regional integration and industrialisation.

“As policy makers, we make policies and we forget about regional integration. We go and make policies to lock out everybody else except ourselves,” he said, adding that the government has also failed to implement SADC policies for regional integration, that “we adopted a couple of years ago” and they have done little to solve the youth unemployment problem, “which is a ticking time bomb”.

At the event the minister also mentioned the example of Namibia’s inability to produce toothpicks as testimony of the government’s failure to foster manufacturing.

“For 28 years, we have not been able to produce our own toothpicks. We would rather spend a lot of money and travel thousands of kilometres to China to buy toothpicks.

“We have failed for the last 28 years. All we needed to do was just to buy the technology that does not cost more that N$120 000 and produce toothpicks. What industrialisation are we talking about if we cannot even do that,” he said.

Tweya added that “finance would find it difficult to give you N$120 000 to buy the machine, but they would rather give you an overdraft to travel to China to go and buy the toothpicks, thereby spending a lot of money on transport and accommodation. To me it does not make logical sense”.

The minister also commented on the recently signed Africa continental free trade agreement that aims to turn the continent into a single market. Tweya said Namibia stands to lose rather than gain from this agreement due to its lack of manufacturing capacity.

“When we talk of continental free trade as Namibians, what product are we going to take to other countries if we don’t even produce simple toothpicks. This is why other SADC countries are not trading with Namibia because we don’t have something to take to them,” he said.

When approached yesterday to clarify these remarks, Tweya denied making the statements.

“Where did you hear that? It is for that reason that I don’t like lazy people like you. I really don’t have time for that. I did not say that. I want people with a positive mindset,” he said.

SADC director for trade and industrial development, Tapiwa Samanga, said member states need to put policies in place to improve trade within the region.

He added that member states also needed to remove stumbling blocks to trade, such as legislative frameworks that are not favourable to attracting investors or do not allow the free movement of people, goods and capital, as well as information within the region.

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