Survey suggests government is clueless on growing private sector
A recent independent survey suggests that the government does not understand what is required to grow the private sector, with 92.4% respondents from the private sector feeling this way.
The survey, conducted by the Economic Policy Research Association (EPRA) surveyed about 559 local businesses, many of which are convinced that the government is not capable or willing to establish a conducive environment for economic growth.
The survey found that 64.3% of respondents regard Namibia’s policy environment as ‘extremely unconducive’ for economic growth, while 32.9% of business report that they will probably not survive another 10 years and 30.5% report that the prospect of them surviving another 10 years is ‘extremely negative’.
About 83.8% of the respondents believe that it is not an honest objective of government to create a conducive environment for private sector growth and 64.8% regard government interference in the free market economy as ‘high’, and 19.5% regard government’s interference in the free market economy as ‘extremely high’.
Around 20% of survey respondents were SMEs and around 30% create annual revenue of N$10 million or more.
EPRA believes that private sector growth is the only way to achieve meaningful economic growth, which will lead to job creation, poverty reduction and reduced inequality.
