Govt should strengthen laws - Zhang

Govt should strengthen laws - Zhang China's ambassador to Namibia Zhang Yiming has said the Namibian government should strengthen its laws to close the loopholes people use to commit serious crimes and go unpunished.

Zhang made these remarks at a media conference in the capital on Wednesday when asked by the media for his comment on allegations of Chinese nationals being involved in matters such as poaching, illegal timber harvesting and the maltreatment of Namibian employees in Chinese-owned small businesses.

The ambassador said even though he does not support what the Chinese nationals are doing, the Namibian government is also partially to blame because there are legal loopholes which need to be closed as people use these to circumvent the law.

“The Namibian government should tighten up and enforce the law… because these people are not doing these things alone, they probably have local partners assisting them to commit these crimes. We are doing the same in China, we don't allow citizens to be involved in illegal smuggling,” Zhang said.

He added that it is not the Chinese government's policy to send people here to open small businesses that, amongst others things, sometimes do not pay tax.

“They come here by themselves. All these illegal things they are doing here like poaching, timber looting and so on, it is their own attitude,” said the ambassador.



NAMPA