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The Namibian government contemplating which state-owned public enterprises it will continue to own and operate in collaboration with private businesses or sell. Finance and Public Enterprises Minister Iipumbu Shiimi revealed the government’s intentions on the future of public enterprises during a mid-term budget discussion held by the Institute for Public Policy and Research (IPPR). This will be decided once the Ownership Policy Framework of entities has been finalised.
The Namibian government contemplating which state-owned public enterprises it will continue to own and operate in collaboration with private businesses or sell. Finance and Public Enterprises Minister Iipumbu Shiimi revealed the government’s intentions on the future of public enterprises during a mid-term budget discussion held by the Institute for Public Policy and Research (IPPR). This will be decided once the Ownership Policy Framework of entities has been finalised.
This comes as the government announced in 2021 plans to set up a central holding company that will own all its commercial Public Enterprises within the next three years. The government is now engaged in discussing the modalities of the framework, to identify public entities it had a key interest in to continue owning them and to consider divesting from some, stated the minister. Once the government agreed on that policy framework, it will then start asking the question, does this fit in the framework or does the government have SOEs framework and then it can start to do further work on the framework, he said further.
The framework is expected to enter the public forum soon, for further input. It has been presented to Cabinet and I believe the civil society organisations will also be consulted. The minister in previous engagements held on the matter stressed that there was neglect of the government’s assets, citing rail operator TransNamib as an example.
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The plan, according to the then Public Enterprises minister, Leon Jooste, was based on the Singapore and Malaysia model, where a central holding company becomes the owner of all commercial Public Enterprises and reports to the Minister of Finance in line with the provisions of the State Finance Act.
The plan was allowing shareholder functions to be greatly enhanced when the shareholder powers and budgetary functions are consolidated under the Ministry of Finance since they will then have direct oversight into the financial and operational performance of the Public Enterprises and subsidies can then be more accurately aligned to compliance and performance. The Department of Public Enterprises which now falls under the Ministry of Finance, currently oversees the functions and responsibilities of the 98 parastatals.
