Prosper Ndlovu in WINDHOEK, Namibia
Zimbabwe and Namibia are seeking to break down longstanding trade barriers and make it easier for businesses from both countries to trade, invest and move goods and services across their borders, as the two neighbours deepen economic cooperation.
The commitment emerged during a three-day Zimbabwe outward business mission in Windhoek, organised by ZimTrade, the country’s trade development and promotion agency, which ends Friday. The mission has brought businesses and stakeholders from the two countries together to identify practical obstacles to doing business and explore ways of creating a more conducive environment for bilateral trade and investment.
At the business forum and during field visits to companies, deliberations focused on critical regulatory obligations, registration and licensing requirements and processes affecting certain product lines. Participants also raised concerns around logistics bottlenecks, payments and the repatriation of profits.
The discussions provided a platform for businesses to place specific challenges on the table, with stakeholders from both countries looking to use existing institutional and diplomatic channels to find solutions.
In an interview, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Namibia, Melody Chaurura, said identifying the bottlenecks was an important first step towards unlocking trade between the two countries.
“I’m so happy that this question came up in our discussions,” she said.
Amb Chaurura said the embassy’s role was to connect businesspeople in Namibia and Zimbabwe, understand the specific challenges they face and engage relevant stakeholders in Namibia through established diplomatic channels to resolve them.
“I’m also happy that already as friendly countries, we have that platform through which we engage on various issues,” she said.
“Using those platforms, we can be able to unlock the areas that can be or that are of concern to either side.”
Rather than viewing the challenges as a reason for discouragement, Amb Chaurura said both countries should welcome the opportunity to identify and address them.
“So, I don’t think we have any reason to despair. If anything, we should be happy that these bottlenecks are being exposed,” she said.
The ambassador said the next step was for the relevant stakeholders to come to the negotiating table and work towards removing impediments to trade. “Now ours is to go to the table and then begin to discuss and make sure that we unlock and make sure that there’s a free movement of goods and services between the two sides,” she said.
Amb Chaurura said the ultimate objective should be “an unhindered free movement of goods and services between the two countries” to ensure that both economies benefit and achieve growth.
ZimTrade Southern Region manager Mrs Jacqueline Nyathi, who is leading the country’s business delegation, also sought to address concerns raised around cross-border payments.
She clarified that Zimbabwe has no challenges with payments and explained that, being part of Afreximbank and hosting one of the Standard Bank Group units, the largest bank in Africa, makes payment issues easier and more efficient. The exchange underscored the broader objective of the mission: not only to open opportunities for Zimbabwean companies in Namibia, but also to address the practical conditions that affect businesses seeking to trade in either direction.
By bringing the concerns of businesses into a single forum, participants said the mission is seeking to move the Zimbabwe-Namibia relationship beyond goodwill and establish diplomatic ties towards practical measures that can make cross-border commerce easier, faster and more predictable for businesses on both sides.
