Trade and industrialisation minister, Lucia Ipumbu last week officiated at the closing of the European Union (EU) funded twinning project, titled ‘Providing support to the Namibia Standard Institution (NSI)’.
The two-year twinning project was aimed at boosting the NSI’s capacity to carry out its mandate and extend Namibia’s involvement in international trade. The project formed part of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Implementation Plan for Namibia, and was supported to the tune of €1.6 million or about N$27 million.
It marked the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, jointly implemented by a consortium of eight German and Swedish institutes with experience in trade policy, technical regulation, food safety, standardisation, accreditation, metrology and conformity assessment.
In her address, Iipumbu was pleased to note that Namibia’s capacity in dealing with issues related to technical barriers to trade has been strengthened and that the NSI capacity in standardisation, quality assurance and metrology has been enhanced.
“I assure our EU partners that NSI and the ministry will ensure that the knowledge and expertise gained during this project will be put to good use to address shortcomings in our national quality infrastructure,” said Iipumbu.
Also speaking at the occasion, Ana-Beatriz Martins, EU Ambassador to Namibia stated the overall aim of the partnership was to strengthen Namibia’s participation to international trade agreements and boost its trade and economic growth.
According to her, standards play an important role in this regard and do far more than just helping to comply with relevant rules and regulations.
“They play a crucial role in facilitating international trade and supporting businesses into export markets by lowering barriers to trade. This is what the EU and Namibia are after in their trade relations: to increase, facilitate and smoothen trade flows. More and smoother trade in turn enhances the creation of more jobs and more economic growth,” Martins stated.
Trade figures
The EU is Namibia’s second export market for products. Over the last 11 years, between 2012 and 2022,
Namibian exports in goods to Europe have grown by 50% from €889 million in 2012 to €1 334 billion in 2022, while its imports have grown by 8,9% over the same period amounting to €562 000 000 in 2022. These figures were shared by Martins.
She continued that a recent independent evaluation study on the trade impact of the EU-SADC EPA concluded that Namibia stands out in the region as benefitting from the preferential trade terms (quota and duty free). “Not only has Namibia seen an increase in exports to the EU in the order of €237 million or 14%, with a direct reflection on the gross domestic
product, but also seen strong gains in real wages. These outcomes are very encouraging and all the more reason to step up current efforts to diversify Namibian exports to the EU in upcoming areas such as charcoal, natural cosmetics, beef and poultry,” the EU ambassador applauded.