President Hage Geingob and his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, have directed that an audit of all legal instruments of cooperation be carried out before the meeting of the Bi-National Commission.

The directive was issued following official talks between Dr. Geingob and Ramaphosa at the Union Building in Pretoria.

The presidents, Geingob and Ramaphosa, say they evaluated progress in the implementation of previous decisions and agreements.

Therefore, the two leaders directed that an audit of the cooperation agreements would help ascertain critical areas where trade and investments are needed most.

They are also to consider the current developmental challenges facing both Namibia and South Africa, which will be discussed during the session of the Bi-National Commission later on.

"South Africa has the highest number of companies doing business in Namibia. We are both members of SADC and SACU, while our currency continues to be pegged to the South African Rand. Our two countries have signed over 100 bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding covering a wide range of sectors. This is the highest number that the Republic of Namibia has signed with any bilateral partner in the world. You will agree with me that as good neighbors we ought not to take pride in the number of legal instruments we sign, but in their implementation," said Geingob.

A need for an Inter-Session Review Mechanism of BNC decisions and commitments has also been identified.

This is in view of the length of time between sessions of the BNC, which take place every two years.

"This work is important for our collective efforts to rebuild our economies and improve the livelihoods of our people following the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notable progress has been made in various sectors of cooperation. This is evidenced by the signing of new agreements to further expand our formal scope of cooperation. We have agreed to deepen trade and investment between our two countries," Ramaphosa said.

Namibia will host the BNC meeting in Windhoek on a date yet to be announced.