Namibia trading well with other countries
“Businesses trading across borders has increased 24 ranks in Namibia,” said Klaus Schade an Economist at The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) at a presentation held on 3 November at the House of Democracy on Economy Watch and Namibia’s Global Rankings.
Klaus stated that even though Namibian businesses are trading more with other countries, the ease of doing business in the country has dropped 40 ranks since 2010 from 68 to 108 in 2016. He stated that the challenge faced are, the number of days it takes to start a business which has increased from 270 to 460 and the number of days it takes to to register a property, which have increased from 23 to 52 days while the rank dropped by 40. The cost has also increased from 9.6% to 13.8% of property value.
He explained that Namibia has 10 procedures to start a business which takes 66 days compared to most countries that require seven to nine procedures. Klaus stated that Namibia has lost ground in ‘basic requirement’ which is down from 4.4 to 4.7 and international ranking from 48 to 75.
“There has also been a deterioration in infrastructure from 33 to 66, micro economic environment from 27 to 74 and health and primary education from 118 to 121,” he emphasized.
He explained that there has been improvement in the pillar of Innovation and sophistication factors from 104 to 77, improvement in innovation from rank 111 to 74 and improvement mainly in goods market and labour market efficiency.
He recommended that a single window or at least one-stop shop be introduced because there are too many procedures that take longer than in other countries in the region, additional legislation must be avoided, that increases red tape at large and in particular the time needed to start a business. Also weaknesses in the health system, in particular high incidence of tuberculosis and continue fight against new HIV infections and the education system should be addressed.
“Barriers that reduce the access of foreign skills must be reduced and a joint effort is needed by private sectors and state owned enterprises,” he concluded.
