Modernisation and internationalisation key for Namibia logistics success story

In a continuation from the recent article on the importance of logistics training to the Namibian economy, the Economist got an overview of the needs for a success story for logistics in Namibia.
“Namibia’s logistics need attention to lay a foundation for her to become a regional leader in Logistics and trade” stated Logan Frannsman a Specialist at the Namibia German Centre for Logistics.
According to the World Bank Logistics Performance Index 2012 (LPI), Namibia is ranked 89th in the world, below South Africa at 29 and Botswana at 68. This index looks at infrastructure, services, border procedures, reliability, delays and service delivery.
Like Namibia, many developing countries try to develop themselves into logistic hubs, however many of the above factors need to be improved to achieve this.

Frannsman stated that modernising logistics and looking towards internationalisation is the only way forward for Namibia and Southern Africa to see productivity gains in the future. He also stated that Namibia needs to take a leading role in this to ensure that they gain maximum benefits by acting as a logistics and trade hub.
“In order for any developing country like Namibia, to compete in global markets it has to have the ability to link and trade with other countries. This is where efficient trade and transportation facilitation is needed to avoid unnecessary costs and other obstacles.” reiterated Fransmann.
He also cited the need for Namibia to adopt new strategies in trade administration and improved logistics practises with the support of state of the art Information Technology systems.
“At the moment the global logistics leaders of the world like Germany, Singapore and the United Kingdom have created and maintained good administration, consistent trading policies in transport and logistics and also have strengthened cooperation between practitioners and academia hence the need for Namibia to follow in these directions” he said.