WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2011-07-25 Time: 22:00:01 Posted By: News Poster
By Desie Heita
The Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) in collaboration with the Namibian Manufacturers Association (NMA) organised the conference.
NCCI and NMA want the land issue addressed as soon as possible, because they say it is currently hampering business development in the country.
The main problem is regulatory requirements to access urban land for business development, and the dishing out of the little available land to foreign investors with deep pockets through auctions that disadvantage local entrepreneurs.
‘This is a particular obstacle to private sector development,” according to NCCI and NMA.
The conference comes at a time when land disputes involving local authority officials and investors continue to dominate newspaper headlines, with suspicions of underhand dealings and corruption.
Most of the problems are confined to the northern towns, where the private sector bemoans the high prices quoted for urban land.
NMA says the very few local businesses with resources to buy land at such prices are forced to channel much of their available resources to non-productive purposes, while they could go to increasing business production.
It was also found that regulatory requirements are too cumbersome – the alienation and demarcation process, for instance, takes up to three years before the town council can start servicing land for business development.
Regulations and ordinances governing land in the country are old, dating back to the 1930’s, and were borrowed from Europe where some such ordinances are no longer in use. There are also too many governing bodies, which only meet once or twice a year.
“We need to harmonise these regulations, and retire those that are no longer relevant. Some of these things are 70 years old, and were done away with in European countries from where they were borrowed. Why are they not done away with here?” said NCCI chief executive officer Tarah Shaanika.
Businesspeople initially raised land-related problems in the Namibian Business and Investment Climate Survey of 2009, and the facts were “confirmed during subsequent public-private dialogues conducted in 14 towns,” across the country.
“Provision of sufficient industrial land is not adequate especially in areas such as Walvis Bay and Ondangwa. The available land is very expensive and that inhibits development,” said Hennie Fourie, the chief executive officer of NMA.
Kavango and Caprivi regions also feature high up on lists of towns with the most expensive urban land for local investors, not to speak of Windhoek that has a huge scarcity of serviced land.
Prevalent among the northern town councils is a new policy of donating or offering 50 percent discounts on land sold to foreign investors perceived to be bringing development to the town.
As a result, foreign individuals own the majority of urban land in northern towns such as Ondangwa, Oshikango and Halao Nafidi.
Earlier this year, when mooting the idea of a national conference on land, the NCCI said the current state where “Chinese, Pakistanis and Lebanese own nearly 90 percent of towns such as Oshikango is a major concern”.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 25 July 2011
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201107251742.html?viewall=1