By Wezi Tjaronda WINDHOEK Namibia has asked Sweden to devise a special development assistance programme to target poor communities. By December 2008, Sweden, which had relations with Namibia for 40 years, will phase out its traditional grant assistance because Namibia now falls within the Middle-Income Country category. Other countries from which Sweden is phasing out its traditional support are Botswana, Angola and South Africa. Director-General of the National Planning Commission, Helmut Angula, said during the signing agreement of a SEKÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 30-million (approximately N$33-million) development cooperation between the two counties, that assistance should be in the form of grants and concessionary loans for social projects such as roads, schools, hospitals and sanitation. Such assistance, he said, could be ring-fenced so that only the targeted poor communities would benefit. A conference of middle-income countries that met in Madrid, Spain last week called on international financiers to work out mechanisms specifically for middle-income countries, who pay the same tariffs as developed countries. “We demand an equitable option for financing institutions to consider middle-income countries,” he added. The development cooperation that Namibia and Spain had will be replaced by a specific agreement on the promotion of commerce relations, which was signed in 2005. Due to this, the two countries have set up the Swedish Trade Council and the Namibia Trade Forum, which will implement the agreement. “Efforts are under way to operationalize the activities of the NTF to ensure that commercial and trade opportunities are taken up by businesses in both countries,” Angula added. Swedish Ambassador to Namibia, Andres MÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚¶llander, who is based in South Africa, said the focus would now be on areas that cannot be covered by grant assistance such as boosting trade, investments and tourism. He said tourism was one of the first sectors that the trade council would work on, considering that it is one of the fastest-growing sectors. Travel and Tourism (T&T) in Namibia was last year projected to inject N$9.1-billion into the economy, making it the 13th fastest-growing country in the world in terms of T&T demand. The ambassador said more than 30ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 Swedish tourists visit South Africa and he did not see why they could not visit Namibia as well. The cooperation development agreement signed by the two countries yesterday will cover areas of education, good governance and natural resources. The cooperation will continue in the areas of HIV/AIDS and poverty-alleviation. Their long-standing cooperation has also covered poverty-reduction, commerce and trade, transport and communication, tourism, institutional support, local and municipal authority partnerships, gender and child welfare, cultural exchange and civil society.