Niël Terblanché
Drastic steps will have to be taken to exponentially boost the natural growth of Namibia’s economy because the current trend will not be sufficient to address the country’s ambitions to ultimately improve the standard of living of its citizens.
The Director General of the National Planning Commission, Obeth Kandjoze, said that recurring droughts, a global collapse of commodity prices, dwindling foreign direct investments as well as the Covid-19 pandemic has had lasting as well as devastating consequences on Namibia’s economy.
“These factors impacted our small open economy severely and consequently put further restraints on our public and private resources. It set our economy back with as much as seven years” he said.
According to Kandjoze, the government under the leadership of the NPC and in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Namibia, the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade including the Namibia Investment Promotion Board and assisted by Harvard University undertook a comprehensive study on sustainable and inclusive prosperity for Namibia.
“With this study supplemented by other studies and initiatives by other ministries and agencies, Government will formulate an Economic Recovery and Resilience Strategy to underpin the Sixth National Development Plan,” he said.
Kandjoze said that in response the government, with full cognizance of the subdued economy and constrained public resources, advised that all efforts should be concentrated on prioritisation of the second Harambee Prosperity Plan as well as programmes and unfinished business of the Fifth National Development Plan for a period of two years ending in 2025. He stated that all these actions will be taken while the sixth version of the National Development Pan is being developed.
“As a result, Cabinet concluded and directed that NDP6 must be developed to cover the 2024/25 to 2030/31 financial years; the Harambe Prosperity Plan II (HHPII) Programmes and projects must be accelerated; and that NDP5 must be extended for two years to enable completion of its programmes and projects,” he said.
Kandjoze called on all stakeholders to concentrate all their efforts and to achieve more with fewer resources at their disposal. He further encouraged stakeholders to allocate all available resources to priority programmes and projects and ensure that all outstanding programmes and projects must be completed in a timely fashion.
“It is worth noting that the NDP6 will constitute the last stretch of our development journey towards realizing Namibia’s goals and objectives as set out in Vision 2030. At the same time, this will mark the end of the Global Sustainable Development Goals. The completion of these development frameworks will usher us all into another long-term planning cycle,” Kandjoze said.
While announcing the new planning roadmap of drastic measures that will be taken to revive and boost Namibia’s economy, Kandjoze revealed that NDP6 would be launched sometime later this year.
