The Information Technology landscape in 
(NAMIBIA)

About Namibia  Legal Environment:

   The independent, transparent Namibian legal system protects and facilitates acquisition and disposition of property rights.  Registration of patents, trademarks and designs is administered by the Registrar of Companies, Patents and Trademarks in Windhoek in terms of the applicable South African laws.  These comprise the Trademarks Act of 1963. 

   The Designs Act of 1967 and the Patents Act of 1978 whose provisions are generally in line with international norms.  This is issue of intellectual property is understood by most companies operation in Namibia, but it is a new area for the government and has not yet reached legislation.  (www.tradecompass.com/library) 

   There are laws concerning protection of privacy in Namibia.  These laws deal with  unauthorized opening and reading of personal correspondence like letters and fax. But these laws fall short on the  protection personal information on the Internet or in any other electronic form. 

   The present state of the laws would change as the use of the Internet gains prominence in Namibian society, it will become an issue in the country. 

   At the present time, there is no pending legislature on the issue of personal privacy on the Internet or any other form of electronic privacy.  The government is still leaning how to incorporate the use of information technology into its economy.  Thus, protection of personal privacy in cyber space is a new environment, and at this stage of development of information technology in Namibia, the government is still learning how its roles in this new environment.

 The expectation is that, as the use of information technology continues to grow in Namibia, the issue of personal privacy protection will then be addressed; and, also, the government will have had more knowledge and understanding of its roles in this age of information technology. 

   Presently, there are no trans-border data transmission restriction, as long as the data do not involve any State security or compromise National security.  To encourage free trans-border data flow, the government in 1992 establish the Namibia Communications Commission. 

   Namibia Communications Commission was established as a quasi-independent, and it is chair by Mr. Barthos Hara-Geab.  The Commission is responsible for licensing, frequency management and other regulatory functions.  The commission reports to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. www.satcc.org

   Namibia is among the few countries in which software copyrights are protected. Therefore, the country has no problem with software piracy.  This is due to the fact that, a Namibia has a limited market for software. 
Most of the software purchasing involve educational institutions, businesses entities and the government Ministries.  There is no mass software market to encourage illegal coping of software or software piracy in Namibia.  Also, the size of the software market is small, and this makes it easier for the government to enforce the copyrights protection laws. 

Telecommunication
Infrastructure
Privatization and Deregulation
Hardware manufacturing
E-Commerce 
Software development
IT Usage
(by military, households and Labor)
IT Geographics
IT Financing
IT Labor Market
Government Policies
Legal Environment
Analysis : IT Strengths/ and Weaknesses
Analysis :Impacts on the Business
Sources and Links
About the authors

 

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