By: Eba Kandovazu
President Hage Geingob today assured potential investors at Namibia’s investment summit in Dubai that their investment, including capital and machinery, would be safe in Namibia and that they would be allowed to repatriate profits to their home country.
He also reassured them that Namibia is a rule-based democracy with membership to international investment protection conventions and instruments such as the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and others.
Geingob said Namibia has an independent judiciary that enforces constitutionally guaranteed property rights for all domestic and foreign investors.
The summit has 192 countries participating, with the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating a Future”.
Geingob called on investors to partner and participate in the Harambee Prosperity Plan II by offering investment opportunities in areas such as green hydrogen and ammonia, oil and gas, infrastructure development, tourism, value addition across all sectors, food production and exports.
Geingob said the investment summits objectives align with Namibia’s national drive in Namibia to alleviate poverty and inequality by creating conducive conditions for inclusive economic growth and shared prosperity.
At the same event, industrialisation minister Lucia Iipumbu applauded the new investment policy regime, namely, the Namibia Investment Promotion and Facilitation Act.
She said it would enhance a conducive business environment in Namibia to fully leverage new investment strategies about renewable energies and resuscitate a post-Covid-19 economy within an updated investment legislative and policy framework. She said this would enable a viable institutional framework to support policy ambitions through the policy desk at the ministry and Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) whilst fostering the required investor-friendly infrastructure through the Integrated Client Service Facility or a one-stop-shop.
“These initiatives are all anchoring ambitions on an effective investment framework to drive sustainable investment. Furthermore, embracing a modern investment law shall help ensure that Namibia can develop a new Industrialisation Policy that will replace the 2012 version but accommodated within a modern investment law.”
She further said the emphasis on sustainable investments speaks mainly to the country’s global commitment to ensure that Namibia promotes and attracts environmentally friendly economic projects, “thereby foresting low carbon transition pathways congruent with social stability and the equitable distribution of their returns.”
