17 Jun 2015

President Lt. Gen Seretse Khama Ian Khama hosted the Prime Minister of Malta Mr Joseph Muscat on Wednesday (June 17) afternoon.

Mr Muscat, in Botswana for the ongoing Commonwealth Local Government Conference, paid a courtesy call to Lt. Gen Khama at Office of the President.

The two leaders held talks over issues relating to economies of their countries. In a brief interview after the meeting, Mr Muscat said he compared some notes with President Khama on the ways which the two countries are doing in their economies.

He said although Malta and Botswana are separated by a long distance they have similar geographical challenges in that they are two small countries surrounded by big countries. Mr Muscat said he believes the economic diversification route pursued by Botswana is the way to go.

He pointed that Malta, a small island in Europe with little natural resources, based its economic growth on diversification with impressive results.

“The key to our economic progress has always been diversification, not being reliant on one single sector.

We are not blessed in terms of natural resources like you, but even Botswana with more natural resources is trying to diversify from minerals to other areas such as tourism and agriculture,” he said.

He said his country has done a lot in terms of diversification with their biggest export being micro-chips of mobile phones.

“We also have tourism as a big contributor to our economy, and financial services where we are among the top four countries in Europe,” Mr Muscat said.

He said the fact that the Malta and Botswana economies also doing well shows that small countries can achieve good results. Ends