From All Africa

Namibia hosted the World Indigenous Business Forum (WIBF) last week, the first ever such event to be held on the African continent.

The three-day forum, that started on October 16 was attended by entrepreneurs, traditional leaders, councillor, government representatives, as well as national and business leaders to discuss global trends, policies and regulations on indigeneous businesses.

Participants came from as far as Canada, Guatemala, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and Norway. “Some of the notable policy interventions in support of the indigenous people are in the areas of access to natural resources and to improve the capacity of communities to carry out sustainable self-help income- and employment-generating business activities.

In this regard, a number of policy initiatives have been implemented to grant and expand access to and ownership of natural resources in resource-based sectors such as mining, fisheries and tourism,” said the Minister of Trade and Industry, Calle Schlettwein at the opening of the event.

According to Schlettwein the government’s community-based conservancy and tourism policy and programme, is one of the successful initiatives that have won the country international accolades.

Read more at allafrica.com