Namibia wants ‘skewed trade partnership’ addressed

Namibian president Hage Geingob called for a more equitable trade partnership with South Africa when he addressed SA president Cyril Ramaphosa during a state visit last Friday. Trade between South Africa and its neighbour remained “heavily skewed”, he said. Total trade between South Africa and Namibia currently stood at R64.1 billion with Namibia importing about 70% of its goods from SA, he pointed out. Namibia imported goods worth R49.1 billion from South Africa last year while its export bill to the country stood at only R15 billion, said Geingob. Ramaphosa visited Namibia last week as part of a threenation visit that included Angola and Botswana. Namibia is set to take over the chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in August.  We will be back here and we will engage on serious matters of the economy, trade, cultural connections, political relations and deal with issues that are obviously aimed at developing our two countries and growing our economies,” Ramaphosa said.