Mr Silongo Haihambo, Executive Director of

the Ministry of Industrialization and Trade and our Guest of honor tonight

Executive Directors, Deputy Executive Directors and all the senior Namibian Government Officials in attendance,

Representatives of the Namibian and Chinese companies,

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends, 

Good evening.

I have the great pleasure and honor to welcome all of you to join us at this event of promoting the working relationship and friendship between the Chinese Embassy and the relevant Namibian Government Ministries and Agencies which have direct responsibilities for Namibia-China business relations,as well as between the Embassy and the local business community including the Chinese companies in Namibia.

By holding this event, we want to reaffirm the great importance the Embassy is attaching to China-Namibia trade and economic cooperation as well as our keen enthusiasm of working together with the Namibian Government officials and local business community. I wish to thank you all for your consistent support to the China-Namibia business relations as well as to the work of the Chinese Embassy.

First, let me take this opportunity to introduce to you Mr. Wei Jinming, the new Counsellor for Economic and Commercial Affairs of the Embassy. Counsellor Wei worked in the Ministry of Commerce of China and the previous Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation for 22 years before he was appointed Counsellor of Chinese Embassy in the State of Eritrea 3 years ago. He is well known for his hard work and readiness to help. During his tenure in Eritrea, several important projects of China-Eritrea economic cooperation have been carried out. I hope Counsellor Wei will get the support of all our friends present here this evening.

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends, over the past 40 more years, China’s economy has maintained a very high growth speed which resulted in China’s becoming the world’s second largest economy, the largest trading country in goods,the largest manufacturing country, the second largest recipient of FDI and the third largest source of outward FDI as well as the second largest consumer market in the world.

Like other countries in the world, China’s economy suffered heavily in the last three years of pandemic. However, for the first half of this year, it picked up again to achieve a growth rate of 5.5% compared with the same period of last year, which was faster than the average annual growth rate for the last 3 years and made China a forerunner among the major economies of the world in terms of the rapidity of economic recovery from the pandemic.

One of the challenges confronting China’s economy nowadays is the so-called “decoupling and severing supply chains” adopted by the US and its Western allies in an attempt to remove China from the key global production and supply chains and deprive China of just development rights. However, we will never succumb to such a practice of hegemony. The policy of suppressing China will eventually go nowhere and will only further disrupt the global economy.

In the complexity of the current situation, Chinese economy continues to show its strong tenacity, thanks to the policy guidance of the Chinese Government and the rich toolkit it has. Recently a series of important measures has been taken by the Chinese Government in further boosting national economies in the areas of stimulating domestic consumption, revitalizing the private sector, promoting the healthy development of real estate market and attracting foreign investment. In addition, consistent efforts have been made to promote the development of green and digital sectors so as to inject more new impetus to the national economy.

With the unique advantages of China’s socialist market economy, the enormous demand of a super-size market, the complete and sophisticated industrial and supply system, abundant skilled labor and entrepreneur talents, Chinese economy boasts unparalleled strong potential and inner vitality. The fundamentals sustaining China’s sound economic growth in the long run remain unchanged. Many international organizations like the World Bank and the OECD have lifted the prospect on China’s economic growth this year.

China is now the largest source of FDI and second largest trading partner of Namibia. The Husab Uranium, invested with over 5 billion US dollars, is still the largest Chinese investment project in Africa. There are now 56 Chinese companies operating in Namibia and a total of around 1700 Chinese nationals living here, a lot of them being owners of small business of various kinds, who have created more than 10,000 jobs for the local Namibian people. The Chinese-owned Husab and Rossing Uranium have contributed to about 7% of Namibia’s GDP and Husab Uranium alone has paid N$ 1.53 billion in tax to the Namibian Government in 2021. These are some of the important indicators of the strength of China-Namibia economic cooperation.

I wish to emphasize here that China welcomes more Namibian products to enter its market. We have been importing the live Namibian oysters and lobsters for a long time and started importing Namibian beef since 2019. All these Namibian products are very popular in China. Currently, relevant Government authorities of our two countries are in close consultations on China’s importing of Namibian deep-sea red crabs, abalone, mutton, grapes and frozen lobster and oyster. There are only a few technical issues involved, and I don’t see any political problems. I hope relevant agreements could be reached at an early date and the Embassy will provide facilitation in this regard.

Since the establishment of the diplomatic relations, China has, to its own ability, provided some development assistance to Namibia, which is a mutual help and support between friends. The projects which are currently going on include 2B section of Windhoek new airport road which is being constructed with Chinese Government’s grant of N$ 1 billion, the expansion and upgrading of 4 schools in Kavango West and Zambezi Regions and the Satellite Data Receiving Ground Station, both projects being constructed with the support of Chinese Government grant of more than N$ 200 million. We are also discussing with the Namibian side some of the new development assistance projects. Each year, China provides hundreds of scholarships and training programs for Namibian people.

It’s very important to bear in mind that China-Namibia economic cooperation is in essence south-south cooperation. China remains a developing country taking into consideration of per capita GDP and other factors. As the largest developing economy in the world, China has always been ready to help other developing countries. I believe that very soon China will make a major announcement of its new program of providing strong support for Africa’s social and economic development.

China-Namibia relationship is more than an ordinary relationship between two developing countries because of the profound traditional friendship between us. When planning our trade and economic relations, China always takes into consideration of the friendship we forged over the long years. We will surely pay more attention to the actual needs of Namibia’s social and economic development and do our best to deepen bilateral cooperation in all the areas which are priorities for Namibia.

I am very glad that many Chinese companies are with us this evening. They are important players in China-Namibia business relations. It’s critically important for all the companies operating in Namibia to respect the local laws, regulations and culture. I hope all the Chinese companies will contribute more to the social and economic development of Namibia. China and Namibia are true friends. In whatever business engagements, we should always place friendship in our heart.

In conclusion, I wish to thank all of distinguished guests for making yourselves available for this event. Especially, I thank all our Namibian friends for your consistent support. By working together, we will elevate our bilateral economic cooperation to a new high. Thank you.