Windhoek
The Minister of Finance Calle Schlettwein has urged local businesses to support trade facilitation initiatives and to inculcate a culture of compliance across all sectors to reduce the need for controls by government at ports of entry and exit.
“Trade facilitation should not and cannot be allowed to merely become popular jargon. We should rather design and package it as a toolbox that would allow speedy delivery of best practices that impact our national and regional development agenda, be it our Growth at Home Strategy, the ACCESS Namibia Programme, the Industrial Upgrading and Modernisation Programme, our SME and Entrepreneurial Programme, as well as our relevant investment and tax incentive schemes,” said Schlettwein yesterday during a Southern African Customs Union (SACU) breakfast meeting.
The gathering focussed on trade facilitation between the public and private sectors and was co-hosted by the SACU Secretariat and the Ministry of Finance, under the theme “Trade Facilitation in SACU: the role of trade facilitation in supporting business: the national chapter – Namibia.”
“Trade facilitation is an imperative undertaking in today’s interconnected global economy as it makes it possible for Namibia as a country and a member of a customs union to effectively integrate into the global trade value chains. In this context, we see trade facilitation seeking to reduce trade and transport transaction costs at the interface between business and government, thus enhancing the competitiveness of our businesses,” noted Schlettwein.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index for 2014-2015 ranks Namibia 88th out of 144 countries, ahead of Zambia and Lesotho but behind Mauritius, South Africa and Botswana.
The World Bank Logistics Performance Index for the same period ranks Namibia 93rd out of 160 countries, which is regionally competitive with the exception of South Africa ranked 34th.
According to the SACU executive secretary, Paulina Elago, the secretariat will intensify efforts to lead and facilitate collaboration between the private sector and governments to encourage dialogue and active participation by the private sector in the development and implementation of trade facilitation initiatives.
“I am certain that the successful implementation of the SACU trade facilitation programme will improve and enhance cross-border trade flows in SACU countries through continued reforms and modernisation programmes targeting ports of entry, transit routes and ports of exit. Stakeholder collaboration is critical to achieve these objectives. I am pleased to note that the SACU revenue and customs authorities are already implementing customs modernisation programmes, which lays the basis for further work and coordination at a regional level,” noted Elago.
“Our embracing trade facilitation as a government and indeed as a customs union simply seeks to make trade less costly, less time consuming and less burdensome but expeditious to businesses’ delivery of product services in time and secure to the end. Equally, government has vested interest in the security of the supply chain, which, as a global trading role player, allows it to discharge its obligations consistent with agreed rules of the trading system in the face of an ever-changing business landscape,” added Schlettwein.
Namibia’s value of imports in 2014 amounted to N$85.9 billion compared to N$67.4 billion recorded in 2013. The export value of goods accounted for only N$49.3 billion in 2014. These figures underpin a stark imbalance between export (mainly primary products) and import products (mainly tertiary finished products).
Over the last decade, global trade in goods saw a substantial increase from less than US$8 trillion in 2003 to more than U$18.5 trillion in 2013. Furthermore, the trade landscape within SACU shows that trade has also been increasing with the volume of intra-SACU trade valued at N$185.6 billion in 2014, compared to N$98.9 billion in 2009, increasing on average by 12.0 percent in the last five years.
“The increase in the volume of trade compels countries, around the world, to create a conducive environment for trade to thrive unhindered. In addition to increased trade volumes, the production processes have become more interconnected across countries, as inputs for production are sourced from all over the world. As a result, international competition has increased and therefore the firms’ competitiveness will be measured on the speed, efficiencies and the ease with which products move from one country to the other. This is at the core of trade facilitation in general and in SACU in particular,” said Elago.