Namibia launched its first-ever Namibian Time Release Study (TRS) report for the Walvis Bay Port on 1 December 2023. The capacity building for the TRS was conducted under the auspices of the WCO Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme as funded by the United Kingdom’s His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Namibia joined the Programme in November 2022, and support on TRS, Coordinated Border Management, Valuation, and Authorized Economic Operators are part of the multi-year partnership with the Namibian Revenue Authority (NamRA). The launch took place in a hybrid format, allowing a wider group of stakeholders, several interested partner countries of the Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme and other international development partners to attend the event.
A Technical Working Group under the National Trade Facilitation Committee (NTFC) produced the TRS Report resulting from inclusive and collective team efforts. NamRA Commissioner Sam Shivute emphasized the positive impact of the inter-agency collaboration and partnership with the private sector that made the TRS possible and stressed the need for unity to successfully finalize important projects such as the TFA. He said, “We must hold hands and walk in the same direction – to improve the business environment in our beautiful country”. Commissioner Shivute also referred to the need for increased trade facilitation to attract investors in light of Namibia’s potential in the oil and green hydrogen domain and the Trans Kalahari border post. In this light, the Walvis Bay TRS is important not only to Namibia but also to Southern Africa as a whole. The Head of Customs, Willbroad Poniso, echoed this sentiment by underlining that streamlined processes would reduce operational costs while attracting more shipping lines to Walvis Bay Port.
The Chairman of the Walvis Bay Port Users Association added that the private and public sectors demonstrated an enhanced collaboration during the TRS, showcasing the potential of the business environment in Namibia. The representative from HMRC, Megan Shaw, congratulated the NTFC TRS Technical Working Group and praised the successful partnership between NamRA and the WCO’s Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme. She expressed that NamRA fosters best practices through a positive impact and innovative reform.
The cross-agency collaboration and WCO capacity building during the project led to a successful finalization of the results, and recommendations are already cascading from the initial report, as illustrated by the fact that NamRA and the NTFC have already started working on Coordinated Border Management with the support from the Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme.
The TRS report and its Executive Summary are available here.
For more information on the Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme, please see here.
For more information about WCO capacity building, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.