Developing Walvis Bay Port into a logistics gateway for southern Africa: Issues, challenges and the potential implications for Namibia’s future

Abstract

Many developing countries wish to become the ‘gateway’ to a region or part of a continent.One strategy involves encouraging logistics cluster development. These hubs support global supply chains and may enable the economic growth of the host country through the resulting trade, as well as providing direct and indirect employment opportunities during the build and subsequent operation of the hub. Namibia intends to develop the Port of Walvis Bay to be come the preferred gateway to southern Africa and the Southern African Development Community region. This article builds on research on Caribbean cluster potential and Namibian logistics to identify the potential benefits and impact on development, as well as the drawbacks and risks of such a strategy.