The Walvis Bay Corridor Group (WBCG) officially opened its office in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in October as part of the expansion strategy for the corridors using Walvis Bay. Government has given its full backing to the strategy. “Given Namibia’s small population (2.2 million), it will not be possible for its economy to grow significantly and reach the vision of an industrialised status unless strategic focus is put on export promotion rather than relying on the small domestic market,” Ringo Abed, Namibian ambassador to the DRC said at the opening. “Therefore, in order to improve the trading environment, the Government of Namibia has focused its efforts – particularly since 2010 – in the bilateral context to forge strategic partnerships in the areas of trade and investment with the DRC for the mutual benefit of the two countries,” he added. Namibia is promoting Walvis Bay as a gateway for two-way trade between land-locked southern African states and the rest of the world. Importers and exporters are being told that Walvis Bay offers reduced transit time, cost savings, high reliability and cargo security. The corridor opens up the market for two million consumers in the Katanga Province. According to Johny Smith from the WBCG, there are talks to extend the Walvis Bay-Ndola- Lubumbashi Corridor further into other provinces in the DRC. There are now three WBCG offices in the region – Zambia (opened 2005), Johannesburg (2008), and Lubumbashi. The WBCG also hosts the Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi Development Corridor technical committee, which is a public private partnership between the governments of the DRC, Namibia and Zambia established to clear the trade bottlenecks along the corridor. INSERT ‘Talks under way to extend the Walvis Bay-Ndola- Lubumbashi Corridor further into other provinces in the DRC.’ CAPTION Kabash Munung ... business development manager of the WBCG office in Lubumbashi.
