WINDHOEK – Namibia needs to make tough decisions or remain stuck in the current economic storm, High Level Panel on the Economy chairperson Johannes !Gawaxab said.
Veteran economist !Gawaxab said this while speaking at the beginning of the two-day workshop on employment creation that started in the capital on Monday.
“To escape the storm, we need to make unpopular choices like shifting philosophy from job protection only to job creation,” he said.
He said the power of technology has accelerated due to dramatic gain in data storage, processing power and algorithm-driven analytics.
“Shift will happen everywhere from routine shop floor work to tasks performed by professionals such as doctors, lawyers and accountants. Technology has become an amplifier and an accelerator,” he said.
According to him, a recent McKinsey & Company study predicts that almost half the time workers spend on their jobs can already be replaced with existing technologies.
“Retaining jobs we have currently is as important as creating new jobs. Research is telling us that the number one destroyer of jobs is corruption, mismanagement and incompetence,” he said.
He said the country’s economic policies must also encourage local entrepreneurs, prevent closure of local companies particularly Small Medium Enterprises.
“There is time for grand experimenting or for this workshop to be another talk shop. We need to get our basics right, learn from successful nations, prioritising labour-intensive growth, make ideological compromises, embrace 4IR, and hire the most competent and talented executives, boards and individuals to run our companies and institutions,” he said.
The two-day workshop brings together key stakeholders such as the private sector representatives, government, employers’ representatives, the trade unions, educators, trainers, researchers and experts.
The workshop intends to address among others, Namibia economy’s largely resource extraction-based which is making it vulnerable to fluctuations in global commodity prices.
The main objective of the Employment Creation workshop is to identify bottlenecks in terms of policy, education and training, incentives including legislation or otherwise that hinders employment creation in the country.