Mining industry contributes billions to the GDP: Alweendo
• By Veronica Amaral
Minister of Mines, Tom Alweendo stated that the mining industry is a significant contributor to the gross domestic product and continues to be the biggest source of the export revenue. He made this remarks at the mining expo and said the government has realized the need for a globally coordinated effort to ensure the sustainability of the critical minerals supply chains.
According to Alweendo, the minerals are needed to support and sustain the energy transition. The energy transition has triggered a global interest in the exploration, mining, and processing of critical minerals. He added that the vision is to be a significant player in the supply chain of critical minerals in support of the global energy transition. “In realizing our vision, we would like to partner and collaborate with like-minded international partners to create a successful and competitive critical minerals sector with a positive socio-economic impact on our citizens,” said Alweendo.
He cited that the government will need to attract the right investment in the country, and will need to create a critical minerals sector that is globally competitive.It is for this reason that over the last two years, the country has stepped up its international engagements in creating an awareness of Namibia as an attractive investment destination.
“Our efforts so far have yielded good results, and we were able to conclude various collaboration pacts. We will continue to intensify our global outreach,” he added. Namibia is a country endowed with some of the needed critical minerals and it must count for something. It is our objective to build a critical minerals sector that will create jobs throughout the value chain, starting with exploration, mining, processing, and manufacturing.
He further recognizes that achieving the vision of being a significant player in the critical minerals supply chain and ensuring that in-country value addition takes place will be challenging.“When it comes to us insisting on in-country value-addition, it is disconcerting to know that there are those accusing us of resource nationalism. “They argue that our policies of insisting on value-addition will reduce our investment attractiveness. To the few who hold this view, we respond that this kind of attitude shows a total lack of concern about our socio-economic challenges.It disregards our desire to create more employment opportunities for the many young Namibian people to improve their livelihoods,” added Alweendo.Furthermore, Alweendo said as a sector, the mining industry is a significant contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and continues to be the biggest source of export revenue.
He urges the people to ensure that they continue to provide a policy environment that can continue to attract the required investments in the sector.Alweendo added that the mining industry has been and continues to be one of the most important pillars of the national economy.
He emphasized that it is equally important for one to ensure that the government maximizes the economic benefits to be derived from the mining sector.Moreover, he expressed that the government awarded the license to the applicants who have met the minimum exploration work program.
“We have recently therefore decided to only award exploration licenses to applicants that have met the minimum exploration work program, as determined by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and have demonstrated the necessary financial and technical capabilities to execute their exploration work programs.This is necessary, lest we delay the discoveries of minerals and consequently deprive the Namibian people of their deserved economic benefits,” he added.