The Cuban minister of foreign investment and economic cooperation will visit Namibia on Friday for the seventh session of the Namibia-Cuba Joint Commissions. Since early this week officials from both governments discussed cooperation in the fields of education, agriculture, investment, health, fisheries and lands and resettlement, amongst others. A concrete outflow of the talks will be the construction of a pharmaceutical plant in northern Namibia for the production of generic and other medicinal drugs.

Namibians along the border to Angola are illegally conducting foreign currency exchanges. In term of the Currency and Exchange Act of 1933, it is prohibited for individuals or entities other than banking institutions to engage themselves in such activities. The Namibian police on Wednesday appealed to Namibian citizens at the "northern borders" to refrain from exchanging foreign currencies as that activity was reserved to banking institutions only. Citizens should be warned that those activities were an offence and culprits would be brought to book, according to Chief Inspector Hophni Hamufungu.

A study of the Bank of Namibia found that the SACU common revenue pool would loose approximately 15 % of the SACU customs component and about 10 % of its total revenue over a period of 12 years. The estimation is based on the 1997 data. The loss to Namibia is likely to be approximately N$ 549 million, which represents 35 % of the 1997 SACU receipts. Additionally, it is expected that taxes on international trade will continue to decline as the trade liberalization programmes in the context of the WTO and SADC free trade area take effect. Alternative domestic revenue sources need to be found to offset the fall in trade taxes. This is a key challenge for Namibia, given the fact that tax rates are already relatively high in both regional and international terms, the BoN governor, Mr Tom Alweendo said on Monday. On the positive side, the economic fundamentals of the Namibian economy remained sound during the first half of 2003. Inflationary pressures abated and the exchange rate appreciated. It was hoped that the recent reduction of 1.25 % in the bank repo rate would stimulate economic activities in the remainder of the year. Overall, the Namibian economy is forecasted to grow moderately by 2.9 percent in 2003 from 2.3 percent in 2002, as recorded in the preliminary national accounts. This growth would mainly be driven by an increase in mineral production and a better performance of the manufacturing sector, Alweendo said.

By May 2003, the operating stocks of Namibian millers were forecasted to be 11 200 tons of wheat and 6 800 tons of white maize, while on-farm mahangu/sorghum stocks were estimated to be 30 000 tons. The forecasted cereal production together with operating stocks give a total availability (domestic supply) of 148,700 tons for the 2003/2004 marketing year, comprising 88 500 tons of mahangu/sorghum, 39 500 tons of white maize and 20 700 tons of wheat. Assuming a national ‘projected’ population figure of 1.97 million and an average per capita cereal consumption of 125 kg per annum, the national cereal food use is worked out to be 246 300 tons, according to the ministry of agriculture. The cereal import requirement for the 2003/2004 marketing year, which is the difference between domestic cereal supply of 148 700 tons and a domestic utilisation of 288 400 tons, is provisionally calculated at 139 700 tons. So far the commercial millers have planned to import about 116 400 tons, comprising 45 000 tons of wheat and 71 400 tons of white maize. Under normal circumstances, the shortfall will be fully covered through commercial imports during the course of the marketing year.

Japan’s international Cooperation Agency (Jica) helps the University of Namibia in the transfer of technology and scientific research. First assisting in 2001 with human resources development at the faculty of agriculture and natural resources, the next phase of 2 years is intended to help Namibian lecturers conducting PhD research in the field of crop science. Studies of millet, indigenous chickens and bush encroachment are undertaken. Short-term experts from Japan were sent to Namibia. To back up research, laboratory equipment and CD databases were sent to the agricultural faculty.