BANGALORE, INDIA – In his first visit to the world’s largest democracy and the second most populated country in the world, Minister of Trade and Industry, Calle Schlettwein, has encouraged Namibian companies to enter into partnerships with Indian companies.
Schlettwein, who is leading a Namibian business delegation to India’s annual Partnership Summit, which kicked-off in the southern Indian city of Bangalore yesterday, said Namibian companies, particularly in the Information, Communication and Technology (ITC) sector should target not only Namibia, but the southern African region as a whole.
The trade minister emphasised the importance of India and said the developing nation with a population of more than 1.6 billion people could be a crucial partner and potential market for Namibian companies. The Indian economy has been growing at an average rate of 8.5 percent over the last five years. With the number of cross-border mergers and acquisitions escalating, the Indian economy is now at an inflexion point in terms of its growth strategy. The Indian economy, which once only looked inwards, is now reaching out and creating new partnerships around the world. Schlettwein also revealed that progress on preferential trade negotiations between India and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), where Namibia is the main negotiator, has hit a snag as the two parties have not yet been able to agree on all issues. The negotiations make up an integral aspect of India’s recent drive to secure market access to different economic blocks such as SACU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). “India is a developing country and faces many similar challenges with Namibia such as not giving in to the demands made by developing countries who are promoting their own development goals,” remarked Schlettwein. He pointed out that India used its agricultural base to spur on both development and industrialization and also used protective measures, such as Namibia’s Infant Industry Protection (IIP), to protect certain industries to enable the growth of productive capacity. Namibia’s High Commissioner to India, Pius Dunaiski, who welcomed Schlettwein when he arrived in Bangalore on Saturday, encouraged Namibian businesses to start thinking in a new way.
“Namibian companies should not only look at joint ventures, but should also strongly consider entering the Indian market. Even if Namibian companies only manage to access one percent of the Indian market, that is still more than 10 million people. Africa represents one of the largest untapped potentials for Indian investment as it is one of the richest natural resource regions in the world. Africa is also slowly emerging as another engine of growth as the International Monetary Fund projected growth in Sub-Saharan Africa to touch 5.1 percent in 2013.
By Edgar Brandt