Marianne Young

I have just returned from hosting Namibia’s first ever Commonwealth Day celebrations in Parliament where I shared British fish ‘n chips with the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, SWAPO Chief Whip, Toivo ya Toivo and other local VIPs. The British High Commission in Windhoek rallied together the eight other Commonwealth missions accredited to Namibia to hold […]

I have just returned from a fascinating week-long familiarisation trip to the deep south of Namibia. I visited British businesses, a High Commission-funded environmental project, met with local mayors, officials from the Karas Governor’s office, flew by helicopter to visit NamDeb’s offshore marine diamond operations, saw a 16th century Portuguese shipwreck, talked to local school […]

Amidst all the global financial doom and gloom, it was really heartening to receive the UK’s latest bilateral trade in goods figures for Namibia this week and to discover that both imports and exports had doubled in 2011. Imports of Namibian goods to the UK jumped up 108% in 2011 to hit £446m (up from […]

I met up with members of the CT World Cup Rally Team at the Kalahari Sands Hotel last night for a drink as they passed through Namibia on their epic ‘3 continent/14 countries/in 27 driving days’ journey down the African continent. The Rally marks the first ever timed driving event from Europe to the bottom […]

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) Centre this weekend and was delighted to discover a number of British scientists and volunteers based at the field research, conservation and education centre near Otjiwarongo. Namibia is home to the world’s largest number of free-ranging cheetah, boosting some 20% of […]

Happy New Year to all! As noted in my previous blog, 2011 marked a significant strengthening of UK-Namibian relations. Looking forward, I am happy to say that 2012 already looks set to hold a number of significant events that will help boost our bilateral links further and provide plenty of reasons for celebration. This year, […]

The British High Commission used the opportunity of the UK Minister for Africa’s visit to Namibia this month to launch a new British Business Group (Namibia) on 1 November. On my arrival to Namibia earlier this year, I was delighted to discover a wide range of British businesses operating here. British companies are active across the […]

I am UK based member of staff at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and have been in Namibia for two and a half weeks to help with the organisation of the 3 day visit to Namibia by the UK’s Minister for Africa, Henry Bellingham. The Minister arrived fresh from the UK on 31 October to […]