SWAKOPMUND: There is a need for different stakeholders to participate in various regional and international trade agreements when actively seeking new investment opportunities and enhanced foreign market access.
This is according to the Executive Director in the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade (MIT), Sikongo Haihambo, who said in order to ensure maximised benefits from these engagements, stakeholders need to enhance their capacity and skills in trade policy and competitiveness analysis, trade statistics and negotiations skills, among others.
Haihambo was speaking on Monday at the opening of the five-day MIT training on trade policy and competitiveness analysis, trade statistics, trade negotiations skills, investment and trade promotion strategies, as well as Economic Partnership agreements (EPA) monitoring and evaluation at Swakopmund.
The training, which is being attended by officials from MIT, Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board and line ministries working on trade and investment r
elated issues, will accord participants a privilege of delving into critical areas of focus, including trade policy and competitive analysis.
‘Accordingly, the expected outcome after this training is for us to use acquired knowledge and skills to enhance Namibia’s export and investment competitiveness and maximise benefits from trade agreements that we are party to,’ he said.
The ED highlighted that the training is one of the ministry’s deliverables under its Strategic Objective 3 of the Financing Agreement, namely; ‘Enhanced use of EPA opportunities by private sector operators.’
‘The training also underscores our commitment to nurturing Namibia’s skills development, economic growth, contributing to the promotion of sustainable development and advancing regional integration.’
The participants will be equipped with information on statistical methods used in policy and investment analysis such as the Harvard Atlas of Economic Complexity, ABRAMS world trade wiki, as well as presentation by the Namibia Statis
tics Agency on local sources/databases on Namibia Trade Statistics.
Additionally, the topics are said to be essential pillars upon which collective efforts to navigate the complexities of the global marketplace and also lie at the very heart of Namibia’s mission to create an enabling environment for trade and investment, thereby catalysing economic prosperity and improving the livelihoods for the country’s citizens.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency