EU Ambassador Antonius Brueser signed on behalf of the European Commission an additional finance agreement with the Director General of the National Planning Commission, Immanuel Ngatjizeko on Tuesday. Some N$ 750 million (94.5 million euros) will flow to Namibia until 2007 under the addendum to the Country Strategy Paper and the 2002 National Indicative Programme.

The financial allocations covering this period are divided into 2 Envelopes:

Envelope-A covers macroeconomic support, sectoral policies, programmes and projects in support of community assistance, while Envelope-B covers unforeseen needs like emergency assistance where such support is not financed from the EU budget. In accordance with the EU agreement, a mid term review was carried out in 2004 in order to evaluate the current needs and performances of Namibia. With Namibia doing so well in its development efforts, the EU further decided to increase the overall funds available by € 3 million, which are included in the above amount. NPC boss Ngatjizeko said a major project would be the Gobabis-Grootfontein Road, to start this year and a road from Okahao to Opuwo via Omakange.

The Ramatex management has given in and agreed to negotiate better working conditions of its 6000 employees after closed-door discussions at the weekend with the ministry of trade and industry and labour unions.
There existed divergent views on labour conditions at Ramatex, Andrew Ndishishi, permanent secretary in the ministry of trade and industry said at a joint media briefing on Monday.

Those issues would now be resolved "within the framework of the law and agreements entered into between the relevant labour union (NAFAU) and
Ramatex", according to Ndishishi. Complaints about low wages at Ramatex, alleged forced overtime and unfair dismissals have kept Ramatex in the headlines, especially the deportation of over 400 Bangladeshis last October.
They had no work permits and lived in appalling conditions.
Ramatex was committed to sound labour relations and will use existing channels to resolve any labour disputes, the company’s human resources manager, David Yong, said at the press conference.

The Brussels-based International Textile Garment and Leather Workers’
Federation (ITGLWF) last month wrote to leading US companies that buy from Ramatex, complaining about the Malaysian firm’s treatment of its employees. ITGLWF secretary-general Neil Kearney called on Ramatex to "abide by international labour standards" in Namibia in a press release posted on the federation’s website a few days ago.

Meanwhile a local NGO, Earthlife Namibia made a letter public, which it wrote to the ministry of trade and industry 3 weeks ago. "We got no reply, which is frustrating", Bertchen Kohrs of Earthlife told PLUS.
The NGO said, if a proper Environmental Assessment (EA) had been enforced before Ramatex started constructing the factory and if Ramatex would have adhered to the conditions of the contract with the City of Windhoek, the shocking environmental damage which came to light late last year, could have been prevented Earthlife repeatedly warned line Ministries and the City of Windhoek of possible pollution and other environmental damages and demanded responsible action in this regard.