The COVID-19 fallout has seen Namibia recording a decline of
about 87% in international tourist arrivals in 2020. This overnight collapse
has translated into a massive loss of thousands of jobs, with the closure of
many tourism-related businesses.
Shifeta made these remarks last week at the third
sustainable development awards organised by the Environmental Investment Fund
(EIF). He noted that at the broader level, government has been affected by a
sharp decline in foreign exchange and tax revenues, which has further curbed
public spending capacity and the ability to deploy the measures necessary to
support livelihoods through the Covid-19 crisis.
"In Namibia, as in almost all other countries, the
impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy has been devastating and
unprecedented.
The pandemic has affected the operations of many businesses,
people's working lives and indeed their personal lives," he said.
Shifeta added that there is a need for people to navigate
their way out of the pandemic's fallout, based on the hard lessons people are
learning. "The disruption to supply chains and difficulties in the
cross-border movements of goods and people brought about by the Covid-19
pandemic has brought into focus our over-reliance on other countries for
essential foodstuffs and other manufactured goods," he stated.
This is thus an important departure point as Namibians
rethink the country's approach to economic growth and socio-economic
development. "This will have the knock-on benefits of enhancing climate
change resilience, creating decent employment opportunities, and reducing
income inequality.
It is for this reason that accelerating the green economy
transition is key to our development as a nation," the minister reasoned.
In its annual report for 2020, the Bank of Namibia stated that activity in the
tourism sector fell precipitously last year, largely affected by the
Covid-induced travel restrictions and social distancing considerations.
The sector was estimated to have contracted massively by
33.1% in 2020 after registering a marginal positive growth rate of 2.8% in
2019. The contraction was manifested in sharp declines in the number of bed and
room nights sold by the hospitality industry, as well as in regional and
international passenger arrivals at Namibian airports.