03 Sep 2014

Government has introduced several programmes in an effort to create an enabling environment for research, science, technology and innovation.

“This shows Botswana’s commitment in prioritising and placing science and technology as a major driver of our economy,” Minister of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Mr Johnie Swartz said at the beginning of the International Association of Science and Technology for Development Africa conference on September 1.

The policies included the Revised National Information and Communications Policy and the Research, Science, Technology and Innovation Policy of 2012.

Mr Swartz said government was formulating strategies to accelerate transformation of the country from being natural resource-driven to a knowledge-driven economy.

The government, he said, had also completed drafting the Indigenous Knowledge Policy to be considered by Cabinet and Parliament in the current financial year. 

The minister said the policy intended to enable Batswana to benefit from its vast indigenous knowledge, especially on how it could be used together with modern science to drive innovation and impact on the country’s economic diversification.

“This should also contribute to innovativeness, community engagement, poverty alleviation, cultural preservation and sustainable management of natural resources,” he said.

Minister Swartz said Botswana had confirmed its participation in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Radio Astronomy project. He said the country would host a subset of Radio Telescope dishes as part of a 3 000-strong compliment of dishes stretching across Southern and East Africa. The SKA project will enable

Botswana to participate in and contribute to frontier fundamental science research, and enhance its scientific capacity, but also to build related infrastructure and advance other areas such as High

Performance Computing required for the analysis of large data sets generated by telescopes. Minister Swartz said he was happy for Botswana to be hosting the IASTED conference, saying the country was constantly looking for scientific collaborators and technology partners for knowledge sharing. ENDS