The Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technologies, Emma Theofelus, has called for strategic investments in digital transformation by local authorities.

The deputy minister made the call at the one-day Oranjemund Investment Conference, which was held under the theme 'Creating a Sustainable Future through Economic Diversification', to boost the town's profile as an investment hub.

"Such investments can bring about improved public services, enhanced connectivity, and increased efficiency and transparency in government operations, which is very important. If we are talking about investment at town level, regional level, or national level, there must be a strong governance framework and structure in place, and digitalization allows government processes to be streamlined and efficiently done to ensure business is not stagnated and the business is not left behind in the process."

Deputy Minister Theofelus reminded the conference that innovation is the key to growth.

Also speaking at the occasion was the Mayor of Oranjemund, Elias Kasemba, who said, "Oranjemund holds a strategic position to grow fast and become a tourism hub in Southern Namibia. Given its unique location, Oranjemund is open to the world and has indeed received an influx of people, which required a collective approach to upgrade the development of infrastructure to enable the council to attract huge investment to Oranjemund and to continue delivering excellent services to its residents."

Oranjemund's Acting CEO, Charles Kakuru, highlighted, among others, land servicing, agriculture processing, renewable energy, industrial parks, and the development of a Golf Estate as some possible areas for partnership and co-investment at the former diamond mining town