Netherlands and Denmark have called for the fast-tracking of projects such as Green Hydrogen to provide jobs, and enable the youth to put the skills they have learned to good use.
The envoy from Denmark and the Netherlands made the remarks at a joint working meeting with President Hage Geingob.
“Youth unemployment is most difficult in society without knowing what to do next, especially if they are educated and skilled,” Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.
“It is even worse if we can’t bring them the opportunities to cultivate their knowledge, then that turns out to be a governance problem. Therefore, I think this is one of the most interesting things for the African-European Union on how to bring a sustainable future for the children, thus the green projects are just in front of us and these are areas we need to work together.”
The Prime Minister was accompanied by her counterpart from the Netherlands Mark Rutte, where they were discussing areas of cooperation with Geingob.
The trilateral engagement centred on fostering multilateral, bilateral, socio-economic and energy issues.
Meanwhile, Geingob said youth unemployment has been a challenge as only few jobs are available, while the market is saturated with skilled people.
“We have succeeded in providing education but not jobs, these are the concerns of the youth who are demanding for opportunities so that they can be useful beings. This is also made worse by Namibia’s classification as an upper middle income, thus, this deprives the country from accessing soft loans or grants,” said Geingob.
Adding that: “Someone uses the GDP to measure the economic class, but where do they draw the line equality? But it is unfortunate that sometimes we get punished for good governance.”
The discovery of oil and the promotion of green hydrogen as part of the energy transition have drawn the world’s attention to Namibia.
Namibia looks forward to working with Denmark, whose strategy pushes for the production and use of green hydrogen in sectors like shipping and aviation, as well as heavy transport and industry.
With regards to the Netherlands, Namibia continues to strengthen bilateral relations as cooperation in various sectors such as tourism, trade, energy, and infrastructure.
Namibia has also seen projects initiated by the Netherlands to support Namibia’s green economy, in addition to science, technology, innovation and education projects.
“We are therefore happy to be entering a new era, a new level of reducing the current energy situation, and because of that, we are entering that new area of cooperation. We are here for an equal partnership which results in a win-win for all of us, also you need to listen to us regarding our interests. We will be telling the one to tell you what we want, based on that we can hold hands,” said Geingob following deliberations.
“On Green Hydrogen we have many ambitions. For now, we are going to explore with our delegation the area of cooperation. Mostly we want to look at how we better our economies and make them more resilient and sustainable. When I look at bilateral relations, our history goes a long way. Since 1990 we have forged cultural ties and what we see today is building on the ties, such as water management, education, good governance and human rights, where we have worked together intensively since Independence standing shoulder-to-shoulder,” Netherlands Prime Minister stated.
“So we are keen to work with you in the green hydrogen sector, for us now is to be ready for 2025/26 and seize the opportunity,” he added.
The discussions ended in the signing of letters of intent between Namibia and the Netherlands for the exemption of visas for Official and Diplomatic passport holders undertaken by Mekondjo Kaapanda-Girnus, Ambassador of Namibia to the Netherlands and Han Peters, Ambassador of the Netherlands to Namibia.
Another agreement was signed between the University of Namibia represented by the Vice Chancellor Prof Kenneth Matengu and the Radbound University of the Netherlands’ President of the Executive Board, Prof. Daniel Wigboldus.
