The week-long international roundtable on the review and modernization of Namibia's outdated corporate laws is underway in Windhoek.

The review is aimed at encouraging investment and innovation through the adoption of an effective and predictable regulatory business environment.

The Business and Intellectual Property Authority (BIPA) and the Ministry of Industrialization and Trade, together with local and international stakeholders, collaborated to review and reform the laws related to companies and close corporations.

The laws are being reviewed in an attempt to simplify the business registration process and allow for more flexibility in filing applications and other documents, including through electronic means.

The legislative review, Lucia Iipumbu added, is meant to improve the ease of doing business in Namibia and to simplify and promote the digitalization of business registration.

Iipumbi says the aim is to reduce the number of days required to register a business from seven to 14 days, as it is currently, to three days.

Though she says there are bottlenecks—such as bureaucratic red tape, an unfavorable regulatory framework for doing business, archaic business law concepts and processes, and corruption—to address.

The Chief Executive Officer at BIPA, Vivienne Katjiuongua, says that the deliberations further aim to improve the Namibian business space.

The conference is held under the theme "Namibian corporate laws for a competitive trend-setting economy."