By: Fransina Nghidengwa

The India-Namibia Centre of Excellence in Information and Technology will promote inclusive development, strength capacity, and building skills needed to reach the social economic objectives.

This is the view of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, during the formal inauguration of the project on Monday.

According to Nandi Ndaitwah, the centres aim to develop oriented programs and to conduct research to address the shortages of computing skills in cyber security, big data analysis and e-governance.

Minister of Higher Education, Technology, and Innovation, Itah Kandjii Murangi, said that science and technology are the primary productive forces in the present era supported by sustainable environment management and excellent collaborations.

She added that the India-Namibia Centre of Excellence in Information and Technology project is the key that aligns well with the Namibian government’s response to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the Harambee Prosperity Plan to ensure that no one is left behind as they move in IT skills capacity building.

“The Ministry of Higher Education is mandated to promote research science technology innovation in Namibia by creating a conducive environment for novel responsive solutions to address Namibia’s socio-economic challenges,” she said.

Meanwhile, India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that the centre is an outcome of the development cooperation and capacity-building partnership between India and Namibia and it is being pursued in line with their shared desire to develop human resources, especially for the youth and give them the right skills in the technology domain.

He further said that the objective of developing industry-oriented programs is to address skill requirements in areas of cyber security, big data analytics, e-governance applications, and software development.

“The courses that the centre is offering are truly vital for Namibia in building a knowledge society,” he said.

The relations between Namibia and India come a long way as this week Geingob welcomed India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to State House on Tuesday.

Jaishankar brought along a second business delegation that included executives from oil and rail infrastructure.