Desie Heita
5 January 2009
Windhoek — Government procurement of locally manufactured goods is one of the challenges that the local manufacturers hope to overcome this year, along with improved trade access to Angola and other countries in the region, the Namibian Manufacturers Association has said.
Expectations of an enhanced procurement of locally manufactured goods also extend to the local retailers.
Further, the association has listed the compilation and implementation of industrial and manufacturing policies for Namibia as some of the challenges it faces this year.
The tasks are left up to the newly elected board and management committee to sort out.
The Namibian Manufacturing Association (NMA) said the year 2008 was "an eventful year", while 2009 is starting with grave concerns of electricity availability and load shedding.
However, the association was able to arrange pre-notifications of possible load-shedding for its members as well as being able to have a relative reduction of electricity rates for manufacturers based in Windhoek.
Last year's highlights include good working relations with relevant authorities, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry in the promotion of value-addition in the agriculture and forestry sectors.
The NMA said it was able to make important inputs into the draft Export Strategy for Namibia, as well as the new Namibia Foreign Investment Act.
The newly elected NMA Management Committee consists of the Chief Executive Officer of Namib Mills Koos Ferreira as the Chairperson, and the Director of Corporate Affairs at Namibia Breweries Gideon Shilongo as the Vice Chairperson.
Additional members are Diana van Schalkwyk of Hartlief Corporation, Desmond van Jaarsveld of Namibia Breweries, Rene Rusch of Elso Holdings, Lourens du Plessis of Premier Signs Africa, and Wolfie Duvenhage of Plastic Packaging. Wallie Roux was co-opted as a Management Committee member. The Management Committee members would serve a two-year period until 2010.
The new NMA Board of Directors consists of Kobus van Graan of Frans Indongo Holdings, Connie Meissner of Mondipak, Werner Hettasch of Wispeco Namibia, Francois Retief of Retief Sales Promotion, Gerd Sohrada of Global Polymer Industries, Carl Brinkman of Fabupharm, and Louwtjie Hoon of Bokomo Namibia.
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