26 Mar 2014

Parliament has approved the Ministry of Trade and Industry budget proposal of over P871.5 million for the financial year 2014/15.

Responding to MPs debates on the budget, Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Dorcus Makgato-Malesu informed Parliament that her ministry would in future migrate towards making citizen empowerment law.

She, however, noted that it was important to prepare the landscape for this law by making a policy because it had shown whilst dealing with its implementation that there were gaps that needed to be dealt with before going towards robust citizen empowerment.

“I agree with citizen empowerment because it will help with the maturity of the private sector that can then be in a position to equally participate with other competitors from outside,” she said.

Ms Makgato-Malesu said she agreed with MPs that the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) should be able to budget in terms of return and investment that will come back to the government coffers.

“I spoke of remodeling and revisiting how we have done business at BDC so that we can change the way we have been doing business a lot more than do date,” she said. She said her ministry had come up with a policy that allowed informal sector/micro organisations to operate from within homes.

“It is an area we are at variance in terms of interpretation with Ministry of Lands because they are trying to ensure that health is not compromised. We need robust stakeholder engagement so that we are at the same level of interpretation so that we can change certain regulations that we have to be insinc with one another,” she said.

She said the informal sector should be left to be informal and not be formalised as this will stifle their development coming with barriers.

The Minister further congratulated district councils that have come up with their own areas as investment destinations of choice, but noted that the ministry should assist them in giving direction for them to have the necessary tools of trade to do investments for their councils.

Ms Makgato-Malesu further informed Parliament that Beer Regulations were currently under review.

She said the ministry was engaging with various councils looking at implementation of the Beer Regulations; Trade Act and that there were some recommendation that were under review.

Earlier on Kanye North MP, Mr Kentse Rammidi decried that the Alcohol Levy was impoverishing Batswana and was slowly affecting the tourism industry. He said there were ways to deal with drunkenness than to push a harsh levy towards citizens.

Ngwaketse West MP, Mephato Reatile called for revamping on BDC as it was not making any returns from investments.

He also asked the Minister to speak out for Jwaneng informal sector traders to start vending at the Jwaneng Choppies Mall, arguing that there were no potential customers where they have been moved. Ends