Celebrating the Queen’s Birthday and Diamond Jubilee in Windhoek

There were plenty of reasons to celebrate at this year’s annual Queen’s Birthday Party in Windhoek yesterday. As well as marking Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s official birthday, we celebrated her Diamond Jubilee and saluted her 60 years on the throne and as Head of the Commonwealth. We also used the event to highlight the upcoming London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games starting in London next month – and launched the UK government’s GREAT campaign in Namibia, to showcase the many things that modern Britain excels in and which make us the truly GREAT nation we are today.

On a more personal level, this month also marks my first year as Head of Mission at the British High Commission in Windhoek, so a special anniversary for me too.

So all in all, plenty of good reasons for a special celebration, which we marked with a traditional British garden party, complete with Pimms, fish ‘n chips, apple crumble and even strawberries and cream. Do access our UKinNamibia Facebook page  to see a full album of the event.

Thank goodness the weather is never a problem in winter in Namibia. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sub zero early morning temperatures had warmed up by midday to provide a glorious afternoon for our party.

This all provide a great backdrop to set off our special GREAT campaign banners highlighting our sporting, educational, business and technological excellence. As I said in my speech, we in the UK are proud of our heritage, and also proud to be one of the most innovative, creative, vibrant and diverse countries in the world. The Jubilee celebrations reflect these aspects of our identity and have allowed us to mark the UK’s continuing strong links and friendships around the world.

I was delighted that our continuing strong links in Namibia were clearly illustrated by the broad attendance of local officials, politicians, business men and women, civil society representatives and sports figures at yesterday’s event.

There were a number of members of the Namibia National Olympic Committee present and we were delighted to entertain our guests with a specially commissioned Olympic dance performance by young members of the Namibia College for the Arts, who did a beautiful number with bright ribbons representing the Olympic rings.

There were also many British companies active in Namibia represented, who I encouraged to help me repeat last year’s impressive doubling of bilateral trade in goods (up to £483m in 2011). British companies remain significant contributors to the health of the Namibian economy in a range of sectors from mining, oil and gas, marine services and tourism.

I would particularly like to thank several members of our new British Business Group who helped sponsor yesterday’s event: British Petroleum, Tullow Oil and Serica Energy. As two of these companies are currently busy  with oil exploration projects off the coast of Namibia, I hope to be doing a lot more work with them in the coming years and have even more reason for both our countries to celebrate at next year’s Birthday Party if current drilling plans go well.

Happy Diamond Jubilee to all – and I am looking forward to my next 12 months in this beautiful land.