Namibia pitches China on value-add deals
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has set out a seven-sector blueprint for deepening Namibia's economic partnership with China, as she began a week-long state visit to Beijing which began earlier this week Sunday, 5 July.
The visit is the Nandi-Ndaitwah’s first trip to China since taking office.
In a statement issued ahead of the visit, Nandi-Ndaitwah said Namibia's development priorities under Vision 2030 and the Sixth National Development Plan would guide the talks, with agriculture, sports, youth empowerment, education, creative industries, health and social welfare, and land, housing and sanitation named as the government's seven priority areas.
She said seven sectors would anchor the China partnership specifically: green energy and critical minerals beneficiation, mining and industrial development, agro-industrialisation and water security, transport and logistics, digital transformation, education and skills development, and
health and pharmaceutical cooperation.
"Our vision extends beyond the export of raw materials," she said, calling for partnerships built on value addition, technology transfer and job creation rather than continued reliance on unprocessed exports.
The push for diversification reflects the shape of current trade flows. Bilateral trade reached a record N$40.64 billion in 2025, up 10.3% from N$36.86 billion in 2024, with Namibia's exports to China rising to N$22.72 billion and producing a trade surplus of N$4.80 billion.
Nandi-Ndaitwah welcomed China's zero-tariff market access arrangement for African-origin products, which took effect on 1 May 2026 for two years, describing it as an opportunity to expand value-added production and export readiness rather than simply increasing raw shipments.
Namibia's outreach follows commitments made at the Ninth FOCAC Summit in Beijing in September 2024, and Nandi-Ndaitwah cast the current visit as an attempt to convert that summit-level solidarity into project-level outcomes, with businesses, universities and investors positioned as central to that agenda alongside government-to-government cooperation.
