Namibia’s Construction Industries Federation of Namibia (CIF) has called for an increase of the government’s capital budget focusing on productive infrastructure as well as the swift payment of outstanding debts to contractors.
Consulting general manager of the CIF, Barbel Kirchner in a statement on Friday said, her federation remains very concerned about the current state of the construction industry as most businesses are in the process of closing or are being forced to scale down operations drastically.
Kirchner said that since September last year, the CIF has made great efforts to communicate with and engage executives on all levels of government as well as state-owned enterprises.
“Due to the severity of the situation, and out of desperation we have also reached out to every Member of Parliament in order to emphasize the consequences of capital budgets cuts and delayed payments,” she said.
According to her the greater part of the industry is dependent on government contracts and the scale of growth in the construction sector over the recent years was largely due to demand created by the government for much needed infrastructure development and the creation of employment.
Kirchner said according to a survey conducted, if by end of June 2017 no new tenders are being awarded, 67.39 percent of the responding businesses will have closed down and close to 40 percent of all employees in the sector will lose jobs.
Meanwhile she added that the situation is likely to worsen if the country’s government does not find a way to intervene. Enditem
Source: Xinhua/NewsGhana.com.gh
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