13 Jul 2014

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Makgato-Malesu has encouraged companies and organisations to take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which was enacted in 2000 by the United States of America.

Speaking in Lerala at the official handing over of an oil purifying centrifuge of morula oil processing facility to Kgetsi ya Tsie women’s group by American Embassy on July 10, Ms Makgato-Malesu said the unilateral preferential act provided Sub-Saharan African countries with the opportunity to export to the US a wide array of goods duty free and quota free.

She said the AGOA framework had identified over 6 500 product lines, which were eligible to be exported to the United States market and for the product to be eligible it should be in the list as well as wholly produced in a beneficiary Sub-Saharan country.

Ms Makgato-Malesu however said she was disappointed that out of the 6 500 product lines, the textiles and clothing sector is the only sector that has utilised the scheme through the AGOA Third Country Fabric provision.

She said initially there were 13 companies that exported under the scheme but fell off on the way and said at the moment Carapparel is the only company that exports garments under the scheme.

She said the failure to utilise the scheme by some of the eligible African countries, including Botswana raises the possibility of being taken out of the list of eligible countries.

Minister Makgato-Malesu however said she was delighted that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Resilience in the Limpopo River Basin (RESILIM) have given Kgetsi ya Tsie organisation an incredible opportunity to derive benefit from their natural resources.

She said the project is in line with the mandate of her ministry which is to provide a conducive environment for growing the economy and creating wealth through investment, industrialisation, economic diversification and trade.

She said her is always working around the clock to ensure that opportunities are availed and fully utilised.

Furthermore, she said the ministry is implementing the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) initiative which is aimed at promoting a vibrant and globally competitive private sector through diversification of exports and export markets, development of goods and services that comply with local and international standards and development of entrepreneurship culture for business growth as well as enhanced citizen participation in the economy.

Ms Makgato-Malesu said the achievement of these objectives will ensure that the noble aspirations of employment creation, wealth creation, poverty eradication, industrialisation and economic development come to fruition.

To this end, she said it is envisaged that the EDD initiative will heighten diversification of the economy into sectors that will continue to grow long after minerals have run out.

She noted that the partnership between Kgetsi ya Tsie, American Embassy and Kalahari Conservation Society is aligned to the national enterprise development initiatives which is currently implemented. She said this is done in collaboration with the private sector and development partners under the EDD strategy.

She said among these initiatives is the Private Sector Development Programme which aims to build productive capacity of local SMMEs to enhance their competitiveness. She said Government has also collaborated with the World Bank Group for the provision of technical skills for development of capacity building programmes for implementation across government ministries and parastatals for economic diversification and competitiveness.

Ms Makgato-Malesu further said that government has also teamed up with Anglo American Company to implement Tokafala, an enterprise development programme which aims to provide tailored business advisory, business mentoring and financing support for micro, small and medium enterprises. ENDS