Opinion Piece: The New Dawn of Economic Diplomacy and Negotiation

By Kandjengo kaMkwaanyoka

Many people question the top leadership of the country when it comes to certain decisions it takes on behalf of the country, be they bilateral or multilateral.

A classic example is when the ministry of finance (MoF) confessed that the Namibian government has negotiated and agreed on an infrastructure grant from China that involves the Chinese contractors doing the work.

I am not a negotiator but that deal alone is one that I would like to sit down with MoF and national planning commission (NPC) just to understand how they arrived at such a decision.

Furthermore, it is a classical case study that the country and all its scholars should study if we are to position ourselves for another big decision such as the Green Hydrogen Concession and the to-be-drafted Regulatory Framework.

What is more, is the decision to lease our newly improved port.

Going forward, if we do not learn from the classical blunders or good bilateral deals we made from SACU, the currency peg, and Chinese grants we will keep making some small blunders that will be catastrophic to economic development and livelihood improvements.

I am not saying those decisions were wrong but we have to sit down and assess their impact and contribution to economic progress. I think nobody gets a chance to assess them.

I want us to sit around atpolupale, or whatever you call it in your vernacular, and have a sober conversation on geopolitics and the value of economic diplomacy.

The discourse has to change regarding the utilisation of economic diplomacy and negotiations on behalf of the country, for the benefit of the people from Keetmanshoop to Opuwo and Katima Mulilo.

So the question I have is: When we say “for the benefit of the country” what do we mean? Have we outlined those specific benefits or just generally speaking?

Because at this point we have many people in Rundu who have no access to clean water- yes, from the two Okavango regionsgraced with a river and a lot of underground water.

And we are busy trying to lease some of the green schemes in those two regions!We might even bring in foreign investors- and the political leadership will stand up and say the main aim is to benefit the locals.

It is the same thing they preached when Recon was brought in.

So, my point here is that the economic diplomacy which is used to negotiate some of these big projects has been detached from the ground realities. Or it is perhaps not well informed with what is happening with the people.

This to me indicates the consequences of not having well-defined benefits we expect from these mega projects and expected capital flow. To my leaders, quoting Vision 2030 and NDP5 does not say a thing, please. You need a plan and strategy on how your community will be empowered, transformedand, lastly, benefit from the expected mega project at the constituency level.

For this to happen now, the country negotiators need to speak to the leaders on the ground and have access to well-updated statistics about the situation on the ground. This will enable the negotiators to be well-equipped with the economic diplomacy required in the negotiations.

In this regard, the negotiators should understand the bargaining power of the country: what does Namibia bring to the table for the success of the envisioned project?

I will speculate and say that in many cases Namibia does not understand what it has to offer to the world. As a result, we get perhaps bullied to accept certain conditions. And to me that is a failure of economic diplomacy from our side.

Remember Namibia wanted to sell Erindi. Alas, and the crazy conditions that the billionaire dropped on the table! if it was not for the Competition Commission, I think Erindi will be gone by now if not already.

So, getting back to my point of the value of economic diplomacy and those we trust to negotiate on our behalf. I thought the NPC was supposed to do the negotiation or offer high-level assessment to those negotiating on behalf of the country, but the current observations say otherwise.

If we do not change our approach and improve the economic diplomacy, we will derive less value for ourselves on whatever is coming and planned to come. I am certain that if the NDPs were the best documents or guiding tools to quote every time we would not get a grant and give up all the work and even the power to choose a contractor.

Lastly, define the benefits, please. Shy away from mentioning employment. Please dig deep into how the country can benefit today and in the long run. Donot go with the hype, or the generosity being extended by other countries, they are in for themselves. Utilise economic diplomacy to get the Namibian people what they deserve today and in the future.

More importantly, our kids cannot queue up in Italy after surviving the deadly sea just because those tasked with negotiating and getting us a better deal fail to enhance their economic diplomacy well. Email: gerastus16@gmail.com