14 Feb 2013

Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Dorcas Makgato-Malesu has expressed concern at the country’s declining competitiveness.

She told a press briefing on Wednesday that Botswana’s ranking in the 2011/2012 global competitiveness report for doing business had been declining over the years.

The country was ranked 50th, 52nd and 54th in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively in the annual doing business report and 66th, 76th and 80th in the same years respectively in the global competitiveness report.

She identified trading across borders, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity and starting a business as some of the most problematic areas.

 Also, low labour productivity continued to undermine Botswana’s global competitiveness as well as prospects for economic growth and job creation.

Ms Makgato-Malesu noted that the lengthy turn around time for reviewing and enacting legislation was one of the challenges.

However, she observed that there were some achievements, which may improve the rankings.

These included the installation of container scanners at the Tlokweng border post and Gaborone container terminal to ease congestion.

The Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) introduced an integrated taxpayer management system to reduce queues, adding that BURS introduced large taxpayer units and accepted cheques as form of payment.

She noted that implementation of the point-based system to allow requisite skilled expatriates to work in Botswana commenced in May 2012.

Minister Makgato-Malesu stated that in a move to improve trading across borders, legislation that would allow electronic commercial transactions, which would facilitate imports and exports online, had been developed.

She said the national single window intended to accelerate the clearing of imports and exports had been introduced.

Furthermore, she highlighted that private inspections of commercial buildings so as to expedite the issuance of building permits and inspection certificates had been introduced.

The minister cited decentralisation of the town and country planning board’s functions to councils to reduce delays in the approval of planning and building permits.  ENDS