ONDANGWA - As the country strives to become industrialised, Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has implored local businesses to support one another by developing business linkages to source local products.
Government on its part, said the prime minister, through the growth at home strategy and the industrialisation policy is providing local business a market to trade their goods and services.
“As a government we are promoting these policy tools by supporting market access for domestically produced products through giving preference to them through public procurement, providing business finance to our business people as well as mentorship to local producers,” said Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.
She was speaking at the official opening of the 9th edition of the Ondangwa Trade and Industrialisation Exhibition on Thursday.
This year’s expo is celebrated under the theme ‘Embracing economic growth through entrepreneurship’.
In the same vein, she also appealed to financial institutions to provide local business including small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and those who want to venture into value addition or manufacturing, with affordable financial products.
“It is through the production of our own goods that we create jobs. It is through production that we grow our economy. We cannot grow our economy by trading in foreign goods, importing goods. Doing that actually exports jobs. We are leaking our own savings and we exert pressure on the reserve at our central bank,” she further said.
As challenging as the process may be, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said, the process to become self-industrialised has to start somewhere and it begins with having financial products that are suited to the specific needs of such businesses.
In addition to getting local produce into the market, the prime minister said trade fairs also provide an opportunity to promote regional and continental integration.
Speaking at the same event, the governor of Oshana Region Elia Irimari also supported the notion to rally behind SMEs to acquire financial and material support for the growth of their business organisation and subsequently the regional economy.