Staff Writer
The Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) says the easing of lock down measures as the country moves to stage 4 as announced by President Hage Geingob on Monday will allow the local economy and businesses to begin to recover.
“It is with great relief that we can welcome the start of our society’s reopening, in the wake of this unprecedented economic lockdown. As we take our first steps along the road to economic recovery, we should be immensely grateful for the efforts by Government and particularly of all those who continue to work so hard to minimise the impact of this disease on our society,” NCCI President Sven Thieme said.
“Getting the balance right between supporting the economy and livelihoods, while also protecting public health, is no easy task. The responsibility of Government in making these decisions is an unenviable one. The business community has shown leadership throughout the crisis, and while the worst of the Coronavirus outbreak is being quelled, news that an easing of restrictions can now occur is widely welcomed by our members.”
Thieme said the continued restrictions over the past months, had negatively impacted the domestic economy.
“The economy of our country was getting weak day by day, which was not viable for a small economy like Namibia. He said the NCCI is grateful that government has met the demand of the business community for relaxing more on restrictions to allow for reopening of more business activities. This would help revive business activities and allow the business sector to play its role in reducing the miseries of jobless labour by providing them opportunities of daily earnings,” he said.
Thieme, however, cautions the business community that the resumption of their operations this stage will be a difficult period, “Our challenge over the coming months will be to make the reawakening of our economy a success.”
He said more supportive measures will be required for certain sectors for them to successfully resume their operations.
“The business community will need support in a way that it has never needed before as it struggles with circumstances that none of us could have planned for. Our concern remains that stimulus measures will require more improvement. Measures, such as increased market access in terms of procurement opportunities for local businesses, improvement of regulatory conditions will need to continue too. We have seen in many other economies that even as businesses reopen, they do so with much lower volumes of trade,” the NCCI President said, adding that the reopening the economy will not be as straightforward as shutting it down.
“Businesses have suffered immense economic damage over the past three months. They will require as much financial support in this stage as they did during the lockdown. If this support does not materialise, we risk permanently losing jobs, and job creators, over the coming months. This will further compound the damage to the economy and restrict our ability to recover quickly.”
