Namibia: Govt Takes Initiatives to Boost Textile Industry

In a move to sustain existence of domestic textile industry in the global market, the Namibian government has rolled out development initiatives to ensure the industry’s development.

Addressing a meeting on the abolition of the World Trade Organization agreement, Trade and Industry Permanent Secretary - Andrew Ndishishi stated that boosting the industry and generating employment, is the way to fight with poverty and raising the Namibians’ standards of living.

The event was organized by the Namibia Economic Society (NES) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) to deliberate on the expiry of the textile agreement of the World Trade Organization and its effects on the domestic textile industry, economy and employment.

The elimination of the textile quota system in the beginning of this year, had already resulted closure of many factories in the region rendering thousands jobless.

Ndishishi informed that the government has taken number of initiatives, which includes establishing cotton ginnery, set up factory shops, launched a joint textile marketing company and a training centre, which will focus on design, and fashion courses among others.

Namibia was beneficiary country under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) and the agreement had no adverse impact on Namibia's textile and clothing exports to the US, he added.

The country’s development strategy has always been to expand its economy, through its membership to bilateral, regional and multilateral trade arrangements, said Ndishishi.

For this, Namibia remains member of the WTO, SADC and SACU to create potential platform for the exports of Namibian products to such markets with a focus to lessen the problems of the small-sized local market.