President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and her South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, have urged the private sector to seize opportunities created through closer regional integration. 

Speaking at the South Africa-Namibia Business Forum in Midrand, South Africathe presidents say governments have a responsibility to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive by removing barriers to trade, improving infrastructure and providing policy certainty.

"Namibia remains fully committed to maintaining a stable, rules-based, and investor-friendly environment that promotes investment, protects property rights, and supports sustainable economic growth. The private sector must seize the opportunities created by regional integration. Our businesses must become more innovative, competitive, and ambitious. They must invest in technology, skills development, research, and industrial capacity. They must also embrace partnerships that strengthen regional value chains and unlock new markets under the African Continental Free Trade Area. We, therefore, encourage investment that promotes skills transfer, technology development, entrepreneurship, and local value addition," says President Nandi-Ndaitwah. 

President Ramaphosa adds, "And President Nandi-Ndaitwah mapped out in much clearer terms, in much clearer economic terms, precisely what that future is. That future will not be determined only by governments. It will be determined by entrepreneurs like yourselves who identify new opportunities and by investors who take calculated risks. It will also be shaped by innovators, people who create things, people who solve problems. And it will also be shaped by workers whose talent and dedication help to transform ideas into productive enterprises. Business has a decisive role to play in translating the political friendship between our two countries into a lasting economic prosperity landscape."