13 Nov 2014

The President, Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama, has set tone for the 11th Parliament following his party's victory in the just-ended general elections.

Giving the State-of Nation-Address during the first session of the 11th Parliament, President Khama said following extensive consultations with Batswana in various fora, they had realised that the core aspirations of Batswana centred on socio-economic development.

“It was as a result of wide-ranging consultation that our manifesto was predicated on what we understood to be our citizens’ core aspirations,” he said.

Such aspirations, he said, included job creation, food security, access to land, access to world-class quality education, citizen, including youth economic empowerment, dignity for all through the eradication of poverty, zero tolerance for corruption, and the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

He said each of these commitments was based on realistic analysis of where the country is and needs to go in order to meet the reasonable expectations of its people.

President Khama said having successfully weathered the storm of the economic downturn, the country looks forward to better days ahead, with economic growth buttressed by reduced inflation.

“These positive trends should allow us to revive some of our postponed projects, along with outstanding issues affecting the conditions of service among public employees. Our optimism is in part based on forecasts of continued, albeit still fragile, global economic recovery, with worldwide output projected to grow by 3.3 per cent in 2014 and 3.8 per cent in 2015,” he said.

President Khama said Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices stood at P124 billion in 2013 and it is projected to expand to P136.5 billion in 2014, which indicates that it grew by 5.8 per cent in 2013, and is projected to grow by 5.2% in the current year.

This, he said was driven by both the mining and non-mining sectors and agriculture which he said were experiencing growth. He said national inflation continued to decline from 8.5% in 2011 to 7.5% in 2012 to 5.9% in 2013 and further to 4.5% in September 2014, which was well within the Bank of Botswana’s objective range of 3 to 6%.

“This positive trend gives us confidence in our ability to maintain a low inflation environment, which is necessary for domestic enterprises to compete in the global market,” he said.

He further noted that government succeeded in restoring a balanced budget during 2012/13 financial year, after four years of budget deficits.

President Khama said, for the 2013/14 financial year, government was able to collect P 48.9 billion up from the P 41.7 billion received in 2012/13, while total expenditures and net lending for 2013/14 amounted to P 41.73 billion.

This, he said resulted in a budget surplus of P7.2 billion largely due to the good performance of the mineral sector, and, as for the 2014/15, a budget surplus of P1.3 billion is currently projected.

“These savings will allow us to reduce our debt burden and rebuild our financial reserves,” he said.ENDS