BEIJING, CHINA – Namibia’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Ringo Abed, says the volume of trade between the two countries has increased with more and more Chinese inquiring about investment opportunities in Namibia.
Responding to New Era at the Embassy in Beijing, the Ambassador said: “China is Namibia’s sixth largest export market. Namibia’s exports to China in terms of value grew from N$939 million in 2011 to N$1.2 billion and N$1.4 billion registered for 2012 and 2013 respectively.
“It is envisaged that this amount will increase substantially once the Husab mine in Namibia, the biggest Chinese investment in the mining industry in Africa, starts production next month and uranium is exported to China.” Swakop Uranium (Pty) Limited, the company that was formed to operate Husab mine, will become a substantial contributor to the Namibian economy. The project will contribute five percent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and generate N$1.7 billion for state coffers.
The project created over 6 000 temporary jobs during the construction phase and about 2 000 permanent jobs.
Responding to a question regarding the type of Namibian exports to China, Abed stated: “Namibia’s major exports to China are mineral and marine products. The products that topped the export products list for the last three years have been uranium ores and concentrates.”
“Unrefined copper and copper anodes for electrolytic refining was second in 2011, while non-industrial diamonds, not mounted or set, were the second most exported product in 2013,” elaborated the Ambassador who was flanked by his deputy, Minister Counsellor Theo Grunewald.
“It is also important to note that fish products such as oysters, rock lobsters and live sea urchins made the top 20 list of the products that Namibia exported to China,” he said.
He said Namibia and China are “currently involved in negotiations that will hopefully pave the way for the export of Namibian meat and meat products to China”.
On Chinese exports to Africa, the Ambassador said China has become the largest trading partner and Africa remains China’s major source of raw materials.
Quoting a report titled the Foreign Trade Situation of China released in April 2013 by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, he said China’s exports to Africa reached US$85.32 billion during 2012.
Regarding future development projects, the Ambassador said: “Discussions are ongoing between the governments of our two countries on how China can assist Namibia with the establishment of an industrial park close to the port of Walvis Bay and the airport.”
He added: “The industrial park is aimed at building and boosting the capacity of Namibian industries to efficiently produce and supply goods and services to meet local and export demand, whilst attracting investors in large-scale value-addition manufacturing industries such as chemical, solar energy, mineral beneficiation, salt, fishery and agro-processing.”
Because of the increasing number of Chinese nationals who have visited the Namibian Embassy in Beijing to make business or tourism related inquiries, Abed has requested Air Namibia to consider introducing direct flights from Windhoek to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou cities in the People’s Republic of China.
He noted Chinese travellers overtook Americans as the world’s top tourism spenders with 83 million Chinese tourists spending US$102 billion on tourism in 2013.
By Chrispin Inambao