Schlettwein seeks private sector advice

Businessman Leake Hangala has said that tough decisions will have to be made if Namibia is to weather the economic storm she currently finds herself in. He made the remarks during a stakeholder engagement held with the ministry of finance this week.Finance minister Calle Schlettwein had invited business people to a meeting to discuss ways to fix the economy.“We must not live in denial, the economy is tough. We [private sector] are retrenching every day. Government must take tough decisions on spending, not only on staff but [also] political,” Hangala said. “Namibia cannot continue to be the second largest spender on the public service wage bill.”Schlettwein had in May said that government is working on reforming its wage bill with the intention to avoid retrenchments, but the process is expected to take substantial time to finalise.Part of the strategy is to keep the civil service as it is, but freeze vacancies, and if a specific vacancy needs to be filled, compensate it with other vacancies in the system, or with vacancies that are yet to come.Hangala had added that government would have to ease its visa requirements.“We have outdated visas. We must come up with a way to attract investments in our country,” Hangala said.Former Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) CEO Tarah Shaanika said that government must remove bottlenecks to investment.According to him, there were two projects brought to the table by private investors but that government was indecisive in making a decision. “One of the challenges we have is bureaucracy and indecisiveness. Public-private-partnerships were brought to government in the Erongo Region to the tune of N$750 million. No response was given by government and we are still waiting for the attorney-general's response. Indecisiveness is killing investment,” Shaanika said.NCCI member Robert Amadhila asked Schlettwein to look into the possibility of removing Value Added Tax from goods used to manufacture. This, he said, would encourage investment.“If we can just take VAT from input materials, the impact it will have is that it will encourage investment,” Amadhila said.Pupkewitz group MD Dougie Truter said that in his experience, he had found that some parastatals were competing with the private sector for the provision of services. In most cases, this meant that the private sector could not deploy capital in projects.Schlettwein is expected to deliver the mid-year budget in two weeks' time.OGONE TLHAGE

Schlettwein seeks private sector advice

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-01

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Schlettwein seeks private sector advice

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-01

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