WINDHOEK – Minister of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development Tjekero Tweya has cautioned that Namibians should do away with ancient and counter-productive practices that frustrates potential investors, inventors, innovators and anyone who has a brilliant idea that can make a positive difference in society and thereby catapult Namibia on a positive economic trajectory.
“We should not leave any room for a single visitor or investor to opt for any other alternative country than Namibia or find any reason not to invest or create industrial activities in our beloved country because of our bad attitudes. But we should rather create lasting memories in their minds,” Tweya noted. Tweya who addressed his staff and heads of State-Owned Enterprises under his ministry on Thursday last week told them from now onwards, each and every one of them should be accountable for their actions.
He said there should be mechanisms from the ministry to harvest ideas, nourish them and support them where feasible.
“If you are not accountable, the nation and the system itself will certainly demand accountability from you. These will no longer be words, but score cards that will and must be availed to stakeholders who in turn can rate us for our efforts,” Tweya remarked.
Therefore, he requested those staff members who still harbour laissez faire attitudes in service delivery to cease that with immediate effect.
Laissez faire is defined as an economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from government intervention such as regulation, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies.
He said Namibians and any investor or visitor to the country should be served with outmost courtesy, respect and a sense of urgency.
According to him, time is now that they serve all their customers and stakeholders with outmost professionalism, passion for excellence and without favour.
“Let us do away with counter-productive social ills that erode customer confidence and disintegrate our reputations in our respective offices we hold such as regionalism, tribalism, corruption, favouritism, discrimination that result in poverty, underdevelopment and polarisation of our society,” he advised.
Further, Tweya highlighted the fundamental pitfalls of good governance that they should completely eliminate within the ministry.
These he mentioned include excessive bureaucracy, red tape, inaction, analysis by paralysis and continuous excuses about outdated laws and policies in practice.
He believes if these laws and policies are no longer responsive to the contemporary needs of customers, they should be the first to act, modify, modernise, repeal or abolish them.
“We need not just do our work as a government. We need also to have compassion for the people we serve and ensure that our service to them as civil servants has the best interests of our people at heart. Let us all declare to do away with all this as from today. Let us throw these bad practices in the dustbin of history. They affect our service delivery negatively and so with poor public perceptions about our outputs,” Tweya guided.
Hence, he said it is therefore their collective responsibility in all respective designations and positions they occupy to serve all customers and stakeholders diligently and to do business the unusual way and leave a lasting legacy that Namibia is a better place for doing business for all citizens of the world.
He said there is a need to include a strong customer service and processes for the ministry as well in that regard, adding Namibia has entered the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is the most complex yet exciting form of industrialization ever.
Tweya however said he does not want to see Namibia as a consumer of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, but an active player and the value addition thereof.
He said current and future generation is expected to embrace emerging breakthrough technologies that are unpacking themselves in the forms of robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, biotechnology, quantum computing, the Internet of Things, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), fifth generation wireless technologies (5G), additive manufacturing (3D printing), drones technologies and fully autonomous vehicles amongst others.