Malaysian rail company and university coming to Namibia

WINDHOEK, 16 OCT – A manufacturing plant of Malaysian rail engineering company – SMH Rail and a campus of the university – Limkokwing University of Creative Technology are set to be established in Namibia.
This was disclosed by Namibia High Commissioner to Malaysia, Namakau Mutelo on Monday.
Mutelo, who is in Namibia on a working visit, made these remarks during an interaction with the local media at her residence.
“We are already at an advanced stage for the plans of the university. Land has been identified in Okahandja to set up that campus. So, it’s up to the Namibian government. The delay is on our side,” Mutelo stated briefly.
According to her, construction works of the education centre were supposed to have commenced in July this year for it to be launched in November.
“November is just around the corner. We are hoping that it will happen soon,” she noted.
SMH intends to build a railway manufacturing plant in Namibia, she revealed.
The plant, according to Mutelo is earmarked for Usakos in the Erongo Region.
“They will be manufacturing locomotives that will not only serve the Southern African Development Community but the whole of Africa. So those are the areas that are already on the ground,” she said.
However, the diplomat – who has represented Namibia in different countries over the last 27 years – believes that the time has come for Namibian agricultural products such as beef, dates and grapes to hit the shelves of the Asian powerhouse.
“I want to have Namibian grapes in Malaysia. I am already talking with supermarkets,” she said, adding that products from other African nations were already being sold in Malaysia.
“If we can have peas and beans from Malawi, why can I not have Namibian dates (in Malaysia)?”
On beef export to the Asian nation, a stumbling block at the moment is getting Halal certification.
Halal certified food means such food products have been prepared according to Islamic law, and is free from pork products, alcohol and certain other ingredients.
“I must first talk to them and convince them, because Namibia is always ready to export Namibian products,” Mutelo noted.
She has been accompanied to Namibia by Malaysian tour operators and media practitioners who came to familiarise themselves with Namibia’s tourism sector.
The tour, according to Mutelo aims to present what Namibia has to offer on the tourism front.
“When they go back home, they will have to convince other Malaysians to visit Namibia,” she said.
(NAMPA)