‘Come and manufacture in Namibia’— NNN tells Chinese investors

Patience Makwele

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has called on Chinese investors to partner with Namibia in building processing industries and creating jobs, saying the country can no longer rely on exporting raw minerals while many citizens remain unemployed and poor.

Speaking at the Namibia–China Business Forum in Beijing on Thursday, Nandi-Ndaitwah said Namibia’s future economic relationship with China must move beyond trade in raw materials towards investment, industrialisation, manufacturing and technology transfer.

She said Namibia’s rich mineral deposits, including uranium, diamonds, lithium, copper and rare earth minerals, must be used to create greater economic benefits for Namibians.

“For too long our mining sector was more on extraction and export of raw materials, a system that did not work for us,” she said.