By Fifi Rhodes WINDHOEK Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Bernard Esau, says the Namibian Government would like to see an increase in exports between this country and Sweden in identified sectors of tourism, meat and fisheries. Esau, who was the keynote speaker at a graduation ceremony of nine Namibians who obtained diplomas through the International Trade Management Programme (ITM) that ended last year November, said Government considers this programme to be crucial for the realization of its National Development Plans 1 and 2 and Vision 2030 objectives as regards the diversification of the economy and trading partners, exports, employment and wealth-creation. The programme was initiated with the aim of identifying, planning and executing promotional and stimulating activities for increase of trade and other commercial relations between Sweden and Namibia. “As an end product, we would like to see a situation whereby many Namibian companies which have benefited would be able to increase their export capacity and ensure that their products reach not only the traditional export markets in Spain, United Kingdom and Germany, but also most Scandinavian and Nordic countries,” he told the graduates, and urged them to use their newly-acquired skills in subjects they have studied to ensure that Namibia’s exports are boosted. The ITM was a result of agreements signed in 2005 on commercial relations and the establishment of a focal point between the two countries to expand and deepen trade and investment relations. The Swedish Government then extended assistance towards the development and strengthening of export capacity of Small and medium-sized Enterprises. Esau said the programme is coming at the right time when Sweden has expressed its intentions to phase out the Bilateral Development Cooporation in 2008. “In this respect, areas such as trade, tourism and direct institutional cooperation between government agencies and cooperation between civil societies, were identified as of importance,” he told the audience. Speaking at the same occasion, Lena Johansson-Blomstrand, ChargÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚© d’Affaires of the Swedish Embassy in Namibia, said they were entering a new phase in the relationship. “The bilateral cooperation is being phased out and the Swedish Government has recently taken a decision to close the embassy in Namibia by the end of 2008.” The political dialogue and relations will be part of the embassy in Pretoria as the ambassador to South Africa will regularly travel to Namibia and meet with Government officials. She, however, said that her government, through the support and cooperation with the Swedish Trade Council and its counterpart in Namibia, would continue to support the second phase of the programme. The ITM programme started in 1994 and has recruited and trained more than 1ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 trainees in small and medium-sized companies in Sweden. It develops an international version of the ITM concept in 2005 within the Leonardo da Vinci project and in partnership with the Exporters Association of Greece, Hungarian Foundation for Enterprise Promotion and the Trade Council of Iceland and Innovation Norway. The International Export Training, a blend of local seminars in Namibia and Sweden, is taking place over eight months. The Namibian ITM was launched in June 2006 and is divided into different modules which include international marketing research, managing cross cultures, international trade marketing, sales training and business match-making. A total of 10 companies and organizations were selected from Namibia. The government would also like to see the extension of the programme to as many as possible SME’s in Namibia, covering different economic sectors and regions. Companies represented during the training were the Ministry of Trade and Industry, NCCI, Team Namibia, Namibia Tourism, Namibia Nature Investments, Otweya Travel, Sea Flower Corporation, Namibia Grape Company and Namibia Pig Farm.