09 Mar 2015

Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) general manager, Ms Tebogo Kesupile, says poor work ethic continues to be identified as a problematic factor for doing business in Botswana.

Speaking at the Doing Business Reforms implementation seminar recently, Ms Kesupile said ethics was a cultural issue that could take time to be addressed. She however said BNPC had managed to secure the attention of the relevant authorities and the institution was assigned to broaden awareness on work ethic.

Ms Kesupile said BNPC came up with a programme specifically dealing with work ethic and was divided into three components; one of the components included training and capacity building which is aimed at training 222 facilitators every year in all the ministries.

However, she said so far, BNPC had managed to exceed the target as already 421 facilitators had been trained, adding that the other intervention target was the tourism sector personnel where already 721 had been trained.She further said as part of the awareness campaign, BNPC had utilised all the electronic media and the press to raise awareness on work ethic.

She said the objective of the seminar was to update the Francistown business community regarding the status of reforms and initiatives aimed at improving the business environment in Botswana and to give the business community an opportunity to enquire on any issues related to national competitiveness and impact on the business climate.

A senior manager at NSO, Mr Mbakiso Morapedi said the government had completed some reforms in the legal area to improve doing business in the country. He said as part of the reforms, the period taken to register a company was reduced from 2-3 weeks to 2-3 days since 2008.

Mr Morapedi said another reform was to remove the requirement for Environmental Impact Assessment in less risky projects and advertising of application of licenses except for liquor. He said in the administrative reforms, the electronic filing of VAT was introduced since January 2014 and electronic payment at BURS was introduced since December 2013.

Giving a testimony on the reforms, Mr Nxabutho Khumalo of Boston Consultancy and Businesses said the availability of the office of the Registrar of companies in some areas in addition to Gaborone had assisted companies greatly. Mr Khumalo noted that since mid-last year the Francistown office made drastic changes that enhanced service delivery.
She noted that the Ministry of Trade and Industry gave investors confidence that they could do business here. ENDS