Construction council vital for sector

The establishment of the Namibian Construction Council, which government has committed to promulgate before the end of the 2019/20 fiscal year, will be one of the key topics of the first Annual Construction Conference this month.

The Construction Industries Federation (CIF), who will be hosting the conference on 14 and 15 November, has been lobbying for many years to see that the industry is better regulated.

“The CIF is very hopeful that with a continued focus, this can be achieved,” the federation said in a statement.

“It is absolutely vital that our industry will get a council,” says the consulting general manager of the CIF, Bärbel Kirchner.

“Businesses in our sector need to be registered to ensure that only those that are registered can tender for business – both in the public and private sector. This will ensure optimal quality in our sector and at the same time, it will also avoid the middleman phenomena in our industry,” Kirchner says.

Even though the CIF currently registers businesses in the sector, membership of the CIF is on a voluntary basis.

“Members of the CIF are guided by code of conduct. However, the CIF does not have the legal powers to monitor and police. It is therefore important that we up the game for the industry and ensure that any contractor operating in Namibia is registered and has the necessary capacity,” says Kirchner.

Experience

The deputy minister of works and transport, Sankwasa James Sankwasa, has expressed his support and commitment and agreed to address CIF members and stakeholders on the necessity of establishing a council for the sector, she says.

Representatives from the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) in South Africa, as well as from the Zimbabwe Building Contractors Association will share experiences from their countries, in particular with regard to the regulation of their respective industries.

In addition, the conference will also address the need for creating preferences for Namibian-owned contractors and businesses.

In the current economic environment, the CIF feels strongly about the need to support local contractors, who find it difficult to compete fairly with foreign contractors.

“This is in particular with regard to availability of finance and the uneven playing field between local and foreign contractors in terms of their accessibility to finance,” Kirchner says.