NAMIBIA’S constant slide down the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index should - once this involves more than five places - send warning signals to corporate Namibia, policy-makers and legislators alike because it has far-reaching consequences for our economy.
And since 2003, Namibia has actually slipped 32 places - from 52nd to the current 84th. This trend should seriously worry our decision-makers due to the negative impact on investor confidence. Maybe we need to look at giving teeth to institutions such as the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) to critically look at the impediments that hold us back.
Corporate Namibia and legislators need to urgently and regularly consult to establish synergies and policy cohesion that will allow the country to fulfill its economic potential.
The polemic triggered by certain provisions in the new Labour legislation is certainly a prime example of empty political rhetoric, doomed to swell the army of unemployed because outsourcing will be illegal.
Some of our more militant legislators, with little understanding of modern business management, were obsessed by labour hire companies to the extent that they confused the concept of outsourcing with the colonial contract labour system. This legislation implies that businesses will be prevented from focusing on their core business because  it will be illegal to outsource their non-core functionaries e.g. cleaning and security services.
Namibia is in an unfortunate state because some of our legislators and union leaders lack the necessary academic background to anticipate the consequences of poor policy choices.
Poor policy choices expose us to the analysis of the (WEF) Global Competitiveness indices that expose the problematic areas for Namibia as the poor work ethic amongst the nation labour force, inefficient government bureaucracy, excessively restrictive labour regulations, corruption and an insecure property rights regime.
There is a real risk that reforms enacted in the name of land redistribution will fail if policy-makers employ the rhetoric of property rights but don’t pay full attention to how property regimes function in the real world.
When such barriers exist, economic growth is sacrificed and human progress is stalled.
Unlike most western democracies, Namibia has the advantage of majority party rule which is useful for creating economic prosperity for the country.
The government of the day should let itself be guided by rhetoric that destroys the economy since they have the necessary autonomy to turn around the country’s economy.
As a result of red-tape by immigration officials we have learned that our country has lost out on multi-million dollar investments which have gone to Botswana instead. The company in question  needed to bring in limited foreign expertise to train locals, but it was not allowed to by Home Affairs - resulting in job losses to Namibians.