This paper draws focus on various corporate social responsibilities (CSR) by foreign investors within the context of a developing state, Namibia. Consensus has been achieved on the positive impactful role CSRs of foreign investors have in propelling sustainable development of the country. Through the lenses of evolving discourses on the role of CSR by foreign investors in the sustainable development arena, the current paper problematises the rather absent, silent and ambiguous approach the Namibian government has taken in encouraging CSR by foreign investors within the country. This paper found that the legal and policy framework on CSR in Namibia remains ambiguous, especially concerning foreign investors. This has made it impossible for the country to fully benefit from the developmental advantages that CSR activities by foreign investors bring with. Within the context of Namibia, this paper discusses the dynamics involved in the practice and recommends strategies to serve as a guideline in practicing CSR by foreign investors. These strategies centre around the legal, economic, informative and networking spectrums of CSR, with a particular emphasis on profitability (mercantilism) retention by foreign investors in light of it being a liability.
Buoyancy refers to how tax revenue responds to a gross domestic product without correcting for discretionary alterations in the tax system. The paper assessed the buoyancy of Namibia’s overall tax system in an attempt to measure the response of the tax system in entirety because of fluctuations in the national income and/or the deliberate act by the government to increase tax rate, reviewed tax code and tax machinery etc. The study employed the Engle-Granger approach to the error correction model to estimate the tax buoyancy for the period 2001 to 2014. The empirical findings from the study revealed that overall the Namibian tax system is income inelastic and not buoyant. This is confirmed by a low and negative value of 0.036 which is less than unit. Thus, the economy is not generating sufficient revenue both through discretionary tax measure and through the expansion in the economic activities. Therefore, the government need to introduce measures that will allow for more tax revenue collection to have a stable revenue base. This also means the government need to keep track of tax mobilization with growth in the gross domestic product as well as to ascertain taxes that are productive.
Using two local authorities (LAs) (Windhoek and Walvis Bay) in Namibia, this study problematises their negative and neutral developmental experiences with facilitating foreign direct investment (FDI) as concerning (Jauch, 2020). The absence of a normative framework for LA FDI facilitation in Namibia’s multi-level government (MLG) system creates a developmental quagmire for LAs. This study develops a normative framework for LA FDI facilitation to avert the negative and neutral developmental experiences of LAs with facilitating FDI. Using the qualitative method, this study interviewed 13 key respondents that were sampled through the purposive/judgemental technique. Data were interpreted and presented through thematic analysis. The key findings point to the development of a normative framework for LA FDI facilitation that ascends the need for 1) sufficient decentralised functions of FDI facilitation in an MLG system; 2) policy and legislative harmonisation to avert challenges of coordination and implementation in an MLG system; 3) institutional structures for an efficient MLG system at the LA level; and 4) broader legal and policy framework for efficient governance at the sub-national government (SNG) level in an MLG system. This study recommends the application of this normative framework in MLG systems to ascend LAs’ developmental role in facilitating FDI for development.
The experiences of local authorities (LAs) with facilitating foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries are reported in isolation. Resultantly, there is no consolidated and comparative analysis of the above. While the impact of neo-liberalism and capitalism on the experiences of investment facilitating agencies (IFAs) such as LAs is recognised in literature (Kuswanto, Hoen, & Holzhacker, 2017; Minh, 2019), an empirical gap exists in demonstrating this impact. Using a comparative multiple case study analysis research design, this study relies on the qualitative research method to empirically compare and contrast the experiences of two Namibian LAs, Windhoek and Walvis Bay, with facilitating Ramatex Textiles Namibia (RTN) and Namibian Press and Tools (NPT) as FDIs, respectively. It similarly draws insights from the impact of neo-liberalism and capitalism on these LA experiences with FDI. Unstructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 purposely-selected key respondents and data were interpreted, analysed, and presented in themes. This study found that while the developmental experience of the Windhoek LA with RTN was largely negative, the Walvis Bay LAs experience with NPT was neutral. These experiences are largely linked to the neoliberalist and capitalist orientation of Namibian legislation that fails to adequately embrace sustainable FDI for local development
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