The clock is ticking and the count down to next month’s investor conference has begun. The conference will boost trade in Namibia using such infrastructure as the Trans-Kalahari Highway, the Trans-Kunene and Caprivi Highways.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has started advertising the conference, which is to be jointly chaired by the Presidents of South Africa and Namibia, Thabo Mbeki and Hifikepunye Pohamba, respectively.

The conference is to be held from 31 October to 1 November in Windhoek.
The investor conference aims at realising the Walvis Bay Spatial Development Initiative, which started in early 2000, as a bilateral economic development programme between South Africa and Namibia.
South Africa initiated the idea after the success of a similar programme using the Maputo Corridor which connects it, at Mpumalanga Province, to Mozambique.
A South African representative, Mhlangano Maphalala, was dispatched to Namibia to assist the government in coordinating the project.
Maphalala has been with the Ministry of Trade and Industry since the beginning of the year.
The spatial development initiative project is modelled on the Maputo Corridor, which has been very successful, said Maphalala.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has been calling for submissions of viable business proposals from the business sector for scrutiny ahead of the conference. There are 48 areas open to investors in Namibia in the Spatial Development Initiative with emphasis being placed in such sectors as agriculture and agro-processing, tourism, and mining.
The idea is to have the best viable proposals polished to be exhibited to foreign investors at the conference. Business proposals requiring substantial capital that local financial banks tend not to look at are set to attract the eyes of foreign investors who would grace this conference.