05 Mar 2015

It is only less than a year before Botswana comes full circle in its Vision 2016, a milestone that would marks 50 years of self rule.

This week stakeholders were testing the depth of the waters in as far as the vision had been realised, and the lukewarm tone in discussing Pillar two of a Prosperous, Productive and Innovative Nation, has been successful in some quotas, and has also experienced challenges.

Panelists who spoke to this pillar were of the view that a prosperous, productive and innovative nation should begin with an individual, family, community, society and the nation introspecting as to what they do towards the attainment of this pillar.

The progress report at a glance shows progress with regards to economic growth and diversification as there has been good recovery in economic growth, following the 2013’s GDP growth of 5.9 per cent since the economic meltdown.

Also some successes have shown in performance of the non-mining private sector.  The report also showedthat it is unlikely that the target of full employment by 2016 will be reached.

Ministry of Finance and Development Planning Deputy Secretary, Macro-economic policy, Mr Kelapile Ndobano said Botswana still needs to work more on a diversified economy, broad based, with wide range of economic sectors.

He said high unemployment and poverty levels still need to be addressed as well as moving away from mineral based economy as it has limited employment opportunities.

Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) manager for productivity and quality, Mr Teedzani Majaule who presented on the progress towards work attitudes of people said for the past nine years, Botswana was experiencing a serious problem of poor work ethic that is manifested in all sectors of the economy.

This, he said impedes the ease of doing business in Botswana which poses a question as to whether Botswana can still be a destination of choice for Foreign Direct Investment.

He said Batswana should desist from the habit of continuously celebrating failure and whenever they have failed or lost, they keep saying they have tried.

He however, said for the attainment of a productive nation, BNPC has come up with initiatives geared towards changing the mind-sets of Batswana to create a culture of good work ethic to encourage and promote increased productivity in the workplace, and competitiveness of the nation.

Another panelist, Mr Sumbe Ongadile who presented on success rate and sustainability of poverty eradication projects said the flagship programme to eradicate abject poverty amongst Batswana has made significant strides to the lives of the beneficiaries.

He said of the 36 000 eligible beneficiaries, only 14 199 were provided with funding or projects, of which 10 059 were operational and among them 848 are successful with a turnover that able to sustain and improve their lives.

He said a total of 400 projects have failed due to reasons that some beneficiaries showed no commitment and were not comfortable to work in groups.

He said for future, government was considering giving the beneficiaries some loans so that there will be commitment, instead of the current arrangement where they are given of grants.

Botswana Innovation Hub’s programme manager, Mr Tshepo Tsheko said a lot needs to be done with regards to innovation or creativity.

He said there has to be paradigm shift in innovation to Batswana to transform into a technology driven and knowledge based economy by promoting a culture of innovation and competitiveness.

Other panelists were from National Food Technology Research Centre, presenting on technology transfer in development of food manufacturing industries, CEDA representative who spoke about success stories of SMME in local business development and Cooperatives department of success stories of viable cooperatives to promote business clusters.  ENDS