When analysing the Namibian environment, I felt it best to divide them into the PEST factors. These are the Political, Economic Social and Technological factors. I also note the Demographic and Natural factors as part of the analysis.
Political / Legal
- Parliament Administration creates a school for potential parliamentarians.
- Government should draft a white paper or even an Act laying out specific rules and guidelines surrounding political party financing.
- Administrative functions of the judiciary be done by a department that is headed by a Director-General appointed by the Parliament of the Republic of Namibia.
- Creation of “Tribal Courts” for matters that can be dealt with by the community leaders.
- Small claims court be established where parties can settle their differences in cases up to the value of N$ 20,000.
- The best solution to corruption remains a policy of no secrets. This means free, accessible, and available information circulated and discussed by opposition parties, free press, trade unions, business organisations and NGO’s.
- A “Local Government Service Directory”. The information will be on a regional and constituency level indicating the services provided by all government institutions with their full addresses and the person responsible.
- A Government Ministry Directory. This includes all staff members in the Ministry, their department, job title and brief description of their duties. Contact details will also be included.
- Namibia allows Dual Citizenship.
- Data Protection Act.
- Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.
- Freedom of Access to Information Act.
- Prepare a Chamber Law and mandatory membership for all business operating in Namibia.
- Prepare, in close consultation with civic society, a law to govern Non-Government Organisations (NGO’s).
Economic
- Create an Economic Database for Namibia that can be used for entrepreneur identification, credit provision and economic statistics.
- A central register shall include all information collected by the government on its citizens, residents and all legal entities.
- Namibia should recognise that the emerging powers, known as the BRICSA countries, do not have always have the same ideological, or even economic system of the West. (The BRICSA countries are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.)
- Permanent government structure, within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to be responsible for country branding.
- A Namibia Retirement Authority with the role to promote and develop Namibia as a retirement haven for foreign nationals.
- A restaurant franchise using Namibian Game and Beef for Europe.
- SME Assessment Recommendations be implemented.
- Namibia should look at the EMPRETEC entrepreneur training model and redesign it for the Junior Secondary School level.
- Develop a one-year vocational business diploma for Entrepreneurs.
- The Entrepreneur Identification Programme (EIP) is a Private Public Partnership where a company works together with government to identify potential clients for its products or services.
- Small Business Assistance Centres (SBAC) will assist the SME sector..
- Capital projects can be undertaken under a legal framework that can include provision for Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT).
- A uniform tax rate of 10% on net profit for manufacturing companies. Additional growth incentives (in the form of refunds) can be granted for activities undertaken to expand to external markets.
- Improve the flow of information about the housing market by making it a legal requirement for immediate disclosure of property selling prices
Social
- It will have to fall on the shoulder of the state to include ethics and moral education in our schools. School subject of “Citizens Knowledge” should be taught to all students (probably throughout their school career) and include those elements that would allow the court to authoritatively state “ignorance of the law is no excuse”.
- The data workers of Namibia need to become organised in a ICT Workers Union, as they are not only negotiating with Namibian companies, but more and more with international technology firms.
- There must be a clear differentiation of the activities of unions and the use of union funds to purchase and manage business.
- Have a Labour Consultative Workshop between unions and employer representatives that could sponsor a Labour Advisory Council constituting representatives of both parties. Such a workshop could lead to a rejuvenation of our labour market.
- Introduce a further two year pre-primary care for our children.
- Ethics or Moral Principles as part of the school syllabus from primary school onwards. The purpose is to ensure that we will instil in our youth, the leaders of the future, what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
- Ensure the standards maintained by private schools, colleges or institutions of tertiary education are not inferior to the standards maintained in comparable schools, colleges or institutions of tertiary education funded by the State.
- Create a law that makes membership of the National Health Insurance Programme (NHIP) mandatory. The employer and employee should each contribute of 5% of the gross salary towards the Health Fund.
- The National Pension Plan as proposed under the Social Security Commission must be prepared and tabled in parliament as soon as possible.
- Bring back forced labour, the Namibian Constitution Article 9(3)(a) allows for forced labour “required in consequence of a sentence or order of a Court”.
- Examine whether the private sector might be more efficient and effective in running of these public services.
- A law on Consumer Rights that includes: Basic Needs, Safety, Information, Choice, Representation, Redress, Consumer Education and Healthy Environment.
- Provide support structures through homes for unwed mothers, or even drop-off points for unwanted children.
- A law to protect our elderly.
Technological
- Create innovations laboratories with confidentiality agreements built into the system.
- Every child attending school should be IT literate by the end of primary school. All children must have the equivalent of the International Computers Drivers Licence (ICDL) to pass Grade 10.
- The government must put in place an incentive scheme to encourage companies to invest 1% of their turnover on basic computer literacy skills (ICDL)
- Build an underground nuclear plant in Namibia
- Telecom should become two separate companies. One, the owner of the physical infrastructure should continue to be the partner of government to ensure the roll-out of access to all Namibians (including receiving government funding where necessary). The second company must be a commercial company using the infrastructure at the same prices as its competitors and being able to sell directly to the commercial and individual customer.
- Establish a numbering policy that provides a legal, legislative, and regulatory basis for competition – number portability.
- E-commerce (electronic transactions) law must be passed
Demographic
- Introduce a national postcode system.
- Give a private sector company the task of implementing strategic local economic development plans.
- The census in Namibia must measure the race and culture embraced by each resident.
Natural
- The farmers association in an area can come together and set-up a marketing scheme for some of their game meat.
- Telecommunications companies together with tourism companies to place web cameras around the country providing live feeds into an Internet site.
- An Internet competition via YouTube for the most original video from Namibia.
- All mining contracts (not only uranium), be passed through Parliament.