Minister of Industrialisation and Trade Lucia Iipumbu has said that the region needs to guard and covet its natural active ingredients sector against undue exploitation, which is the bedrock of both the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sector.
Speaking at the SACU ministerial investment roundtable last week, Iipumbu highlighted that efforts are much needed to reduce the exportation of natural ingredients in raw form whilst we import large quantities of value added products thereof.
“The Cosmetics and Essential Oils sector has advanced in terms of production domestically and thus participation in the regional value chain is possible. In Namibia for example, our exportable firms increased from 5 in 2016 to more than 35 by 2021 through concerted efforts by the Namibian government and development partners,” Iipumbu said further adding “I will further want to support that this platform deliberations should continue to indicate, from an industrial policy perspective, how we all could harness the SACU rebates and duty drawbacks to develop these identified value chains further.”
She also indicated that as a country, Namibia was keen to participate fully at the Investment Conference through projects, which were showcased at the Ministerial Investment Roundtable.
“These are in beef, horticulture and agro-processing, sectors mainly. In addition, there are numerous opportunities for both public and private sector driven projects that can support investments in these sectors.
“Apart from investment projects, we must use this august forum to reflect on policy innovations around industrialisation and investment-making. For example we should investigate further opportunities for task – trading enhancement such as our weaner trade that flourish either with Namibia and South Africa and Botswana and South Africa to enable more value addition path-nodes. Equally Namibia has projects such as the Kavango Cattle Ranch that lends itself to the development of regional and bilateral value chains,” she said.