When is Government going to heed business’ call?

A SKILLS drought and Government’s reluctance to issue work permits so that foreigners can show Namibians the ropes – for the umpteenth time the private sector yesterday labelled this the thorn in the side of business development.

The 2012 Namibian Business and Investment Climate Survey (namBiC), launched in Windhoek yesterday morning, once again singled out the shortage of skilled labour as the biggest stumbling block for formal business, especially smaller companies, to advance.Obtaining work permits was even more difficult in 2011, the year on which the report is based, than in 2010, namBiC said. On a scale of minus two, indicating very difficult, to 0,5 representing not too difficult, getting a work permit was rated minus 1,06. Small firms had it even worse, as reflected in their rating of minus 1,77.’The scarcity of skilled labour has been raised by private sector associations, such as the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI), the Namibian Manufacturers Association (NMA) and the Namibia Employers’ Federation (NEF), time and again, and a public-private sector dialogue on this topic was organised, but has not resulted in any concerted efforts to address the challenge,’ the namBiC report said.This constraint has also topped the list of the most problematic factors of doing business in Namibia in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Report for many years.Officially launching the namBiC survey, Prime Minister Nahas Angula said ‘one of the biggest challenges to employment creation in Namibia is believed to be the lack of skills which is also identified as one of the key obstacles to business growth’. ‘This once again confirms that skills development and attraction is urgent and very critical to our growth ambitions. As a nation, we must work harder to address this challenge with the urgency it requires,’ Angula said.The namBiC team, consisting of the NCCI, the NMA and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), called on Government to allow skilled foreigners to fill positions where there is ‘an obvious lack of domestic professionals’ and said that the approval of work permits should be sped up.The Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration previously set itself a target of reviewing work visa applications with 60 days by 2014 instead of 90 days, but has removed this target from the latest set of budget documents, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2012-15.The namBiC report suggested that private sector associations, together with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and trade unions, should agree on a priority list of skills urgently needed. ‘Work permit applications for these positions should receive preferential treatment at the Immigration Board meetings,’ the report said.Namibia must develop local skills, the namBiC team concluded. The private sector through industry skills committees should consult with tertiary education institutions regarding their capacity to provide sought-after skills, they said.’Again, priorities have to be set, since it cannot be expected that tertiary institutions provide all the skills needed by the private and public sectors,’ the report said.In addition, the public sector, parastatals and the private sector have to combine efforts to train people on the job through apprenticeships and attachment programme, it said.