Windhoek
Namibia has all the elements needed to be a financial centre in the sub-region, if not the whole of Africa, a renowned expert has said.
The country has the capacity and suitable elements to be southern Africa’s financial hub, especially if Namibia can start moving towards becoming a knowledge-based economy, Professor David Abdulai believes.
Mauritius is the only southern African country that has moved toward being a knowledge-based economy, observed Abdulai, a professor from the African Graduate School of Management and Leadership in Accra, Ghana.
He made the remarks while presenting a paper at the five-day international relations policy review conference currently underway in Windhoek. “Those who think it is impossible should consider today’s Dubai, when it was a little sleepy town about 20 years ago,” he said.
“Because of its population size, Namibia has the capability to develop the requisite laws, infrastructure, its membership of SACU (Southern African Customs Union), SADC (Southern African Development Community) and other international organisations are an advantage. It is a peaceful country and has the land and can develop the requisite infrastructure for this purpose,” he said.
His paper was titled ‘The Contribution of Trade and Investment to Poverty Reduction and the Shaping of a Country’s Foreign Policy: Policy Options for Namibia.’
The country should also seriously undertake the effort to move to a knowledge-based economy. “In fact it should seriously consider establishing itself as a knowledge hub for the southern Africa region to produce knowledge products for the sub-region, Africa and the world as a whole,” he said.
He singled out Singapore, Malaysia and India as countries that have benefited from the move to knowledge based economies. In southern Africa it is only Mauritius who has seriously embraced the knowledge-based economy and is benefiting from it.
The professor also noted that Namibia already has conducive economic policies in place, especially its policies of enhancing trade and investment to bring about economic growth and poverty reduction.
He, nevertheless, advised that Namibia should be cautious in its embrace of trade and investment for growth and development. This is because Namibia “is a small open economy and cannot withstand some of the gale winds that sometimes follow the total liberalisation of trade and investment.”
“If the devastating impact of the Asian financial crisis is anything to go by, Namibia should be rather cautious in its trade and investment liberalisation efforts,” he said.
He quoted the late Deng Xiaoping, China’s revolutionary statesman, when he cautioned China on opening up its economy to the rest of the world, to the effect that: “We must cross the river by feeling the stones.” That meant, Abdulai said, “China must be cautious in its opening up. Namibia can learn from China’s example.”
The other advice is for Namibia to re-look at its existing trade and investment policies, which “are some of the best in Africa” and consider “where they need to be enhanced and where some need to be tightened to deliver on what they were put into place to achieve.”
This, he says, is because beside the existence of good policies Namibia has not been able to achieve some of her targets, except for attracting trade and investment into the extractive industrial sector.
“The strategic purpose of such policies needs to be re-looked at to speak to the new focus of the country on the eradication of poverty and the new Harambee Prosperity Plan,” he said.
Whatever the country decides to do it should not forget that the scars of apartheid have exacted a serious impact on the socio-economic, political and physical being of the people.
“The attendant impact on the mind-sets, attitudes, perceptions and outlook of most Namibians as it pertains to these historical incidents cannot be trivialised,” he pointed out.
Thus, he urged the leadership of the country to consider and relook at the change of mind-sets, attitudes and perceptions as part of the Harambee Prosperity Plan.
“Perhaps therein lies Namibia’s answer to eradicating poverty in all its forms, the commitment to growing its economy in a sustainable and inclusive manner, a country with a future outlook of shared prosperity, characterised by equitable income distribution and fair economic participation for all its citizens,” he concluded.