REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA STATEMENT BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE DR HAGE G. GEINGOB, PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA, AT, THE OPENING OF THE 2014 IPM NAMIBIA CONFERENCE ON OCTOBER 13, 2014, SAFARI HOTEL, WINDHOEK Director of Ceremonies; Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Honourable Doreen Sioka; Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Honourable Alpheus Muhuea; President of IPM Namibia, Mr. Tim Ekandjo; Chief Executive Officer of MCA Namibia, Mrs. Penny Akwenye; Chief Executive Officer of the NCCI, Mr. Tarah Shaanika; Speakers; Distinguished Invited Guests Members of the Media Ladies and Gentlemen It is my pleasure to join you here this morning. I am delighted to have been invited to officially open this very important conference. The issue of human resource development is something, which is very close to my heart and ties in with another issue that I am equally passionate about and that is the effective delivery of goods and services. These two are interlinked and you cannot have one without the other. Human resource development is of strategic importance. Organizations consist of people, and so the development of these people should be a key task for organizations. People matter because in the highly competitive environment which offices, ministries, agencies and private sector firms now face, people have become precious commodities in gaining any sort of advantage over other organizations. The importance that people and ultimately human resources hold in the workplace is best captured by Renee West who said, “You can have the best strategy and the best building in the world, but if you don’t have the hearts and minds of the people who work with you, none of it comes to life.” Therefore it is not enough for us to build beautiful offices and formulate excellent policies. This alone will not take our country forward if we don’t invest time, money and effort in developing our human resources so that we are all able to pull in the same direction and managers are able to win the hearts and minds of employees. Human Resource Development is a vital area for firms because ideas for innovation, quality and continuous improvement, as well as other critically important inputs needed to compete in the modern, highly competitive business world, come from people and not from machines. In Namibia, Government has realized the importance of human resources development. Together with institutional capacity building, human resource development have been identified as some of the prerequisite strategic objectives for achieving Vision 2030, and for the implementation of the National Development Plans. Within the Public Service of Namibia, we continue to develop intervention strategies to ensure that we develop our human resources so that we address the mismatch between economic growth and employment which has resulted in an unacceptably high unemployment rate. One way in which we have ensured sustainability of our Human Resource Planning is through the institutionalization of the planning process. In Government, Human Resource Planning is not centralized any more, being the sole responsibility of the Office of the Prime Minister. Rather, the coordination of human resource planning links all offices, ministries and agencies together, forming a network. Each party is therefore able to adapt goals, strategies and initiatives to the particular needs that their office, ministry or agency deals with. Ladies and gentlemen, Government is committed to transforming Namibia’s economy from an agricultural economy to a knowledge based economy. In fact we plan to leapfrog the industrial and mass production stages of economic development in order to achieve the objectives set out in our Vision 2030. To do that we have to focus all our efforts on improving our human resources. I have mentioned it before but I cannot over emphasize the importance of human resource development. You are all aware that we are faced with a challenge of income disparities within our economy. Part of this has to do with the quality of our human resources. All over the world, large disparities are occurring between knowledge employees and service and routine production employees. This creates the potential for a new type of class conflict. It is becoming evidently clear that divisions in societies are occurring between groups of individuals who have the requisite education and the knowledge for upward mobility and those who are not. Obviously we cannot allow this trend to continue in Namibia. I believe in inclusivity and that “No Namibian should feel left out.” Class conflicts are a thing of the past and should have no place in an independent Namibia. We therefore have to ensure sustained investment in developing, training and improvement of our human resources to improve the economic competitiveness and growth of Namibia. Ladies and gentlemen, How should we harness our human resource potential and develop our employees? Well, I believe that the way to bring out the best in people is by creating a conducive environment. Talented people cannot be motivated by pressure, nor even by financial incentives alone. Fair treatment, recognition and rewards are of course important factors. But the most effective way to manage talented people is to create a stimulating environment, challenge them to achieve ambitious goals, engage their interest, passion and idealism, then let them pursue their interests. At this point I would like to share with you some salient quotes of wisdom from a book titled The Rules of Management by Richard Templar. I encourage all of you managers here today who have a passion for the development of human resources to read this book and discuss it with your fellow staff members. That is what I did. The first quote I would like to share with you is the following. “You are responsible for a whole gang of people that you probably didn’t pick, may not like, might have nothing in common with and who perhaps won’t like you much.” What this means is no matter how different the personalities and beliefs of the people you have to manage, as a manager, you are still expected to have the skill to bring the best out of them. The second quote I want to share is the following. “Get them convinced, because it is true of course that what they do makes a difference.” A manager should know that everyone deep down wants to be valued and useful. Therefore, if you desire to get the best out of your staff, make them understand that what the do makes a difference. The third quote talks about building a team with a common goal and focus. “A team doesn’t pull together well when each individual member focuses on their own target.” Templar explains this quote by saying that a team isn’t a collection of people. It is an organization with its own dynamics, qualities, and conventions. Without knowing these things, you will flounder. Knowing them, you can work your team to achieve greatness. The next quote from the book I want to share with you is simple but often overlooked by many managers and that is, “Encourage people”. Managers should encourage employees to carry out their jobs to the best of their ability while been cognizant of their limitations. Some are good at some things and some good at other. That’s what makes it a team. Ladies and gentlemen, There are so many excellent quotes in this book that are relevant to bringing out the best from your human resources. If I shared them all with you this conference might start and end with my speech. I am aware that later today we will be listening to presentations by various experts on topics such as Executive Expectations from HR, An insight into talent management and Personal Branding of HR. I believe that the quotes that I have shared with you today will help you appreciate these topics that much more. Namibia’s economy has grown steadily over the past few decades. Our success story is built on the foundations of peace, democracy and stability. We have built up a strong Governance Architecture and a robust Macro-Economic Architecture. However, it is now time to work towards developing our Socio-Economic Architecture so that we can achieve more equitable wealth distribution and reduce poverty while at the same time maintaining a strong rate of economic growth. Future progress will depend on us making full use of our talent. That is why human resource and leadership development is critical to Namibia, and that is why we need to invest heavily in this area. Let us work together to build a strong talent base for Namibia, one that will create prosperity for our economy and better lives for all our people. I would like to leave you with one final quote by Peter Drucker who said, “Management by objective works if you know the objective. Ninety percent of the time you don’t.” I hope that this conference will enable us to exchange ideas of how we can know the objective hundred percent of the time and in so doing help us bring the best out of our human resources. With these words I now officially open the 2014 IPM Namibia Conference. I wish you all fruitful deliberations. Thank you.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 09:43:32 +0000
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