ONGWEDIVA – Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has urged the Agro-Marketing and Trade Agency (AMTA) to ensure that Namibia does not become a dumpsite for foreign produce by striving to develop capacity to withstand competition from foreign firms.
The prime minister pleaded with AMTA to ensure that local produce gets priority on AMTA’s shelves.
“I have received the assurance that locally available produce will be sourced locally because AMTA is established to optimise local production so we can create goods to market to other countries and increase production to grow the economy and create jobs,” the prime minister said after a closed-door meeting with the company’s leadership on Thursday.
The prime minister was at the company’s Ongwediva facility to familiarise herself with its operations.
In addition to supporting value addition, capacitating local producers, creating jobs and growing the economy, the prime minister said it is imperative that Namibia benefits from the international integration programme and further develop capacity to benefit from the opportunities that exist in the market for other Southern African Development Community member states.
She thus encouraged AMTA to live up to its mandate to optimise agricultural production and promote local produce locally and internationally.
The prime minister further encouraged pro-activeness to ensure that locally unavailable produce is also made available in order to gradually cut on imports and subsequently substitute foreign with local produce.
“We cannot say the produce is not available, we should look at the potential that exist in the economy to create more products that are not locally available,” Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said.
The prime minister further indicated that government wants to buy locally produced goods to supply its various institutions across the country.
“We don’t want people to come and tender to supply government with goods sourced from outside,” said Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.
The prime minister thus urged AMTA to ensure their data to see how much produce is sourced locally and that which is sourced from outside is complete and updated regularly.