01 Jul 2015

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi says government has considered lowering issuance of licences to Chinese nationals for retail.

Dr Venson-Moitoi said in an interview that government had “drastically reduced” retail licences given to Chinese nationals.

“Retail is a preserve for Batswana and it is an area where we believe Batswana should have a higher percentage because we are seeking jobs and employment for Batswana,” she said.

She said government believed that Batswana should have a higher proportion in retail despite the fact that some might be renting their premises to the Chinese for retail, noting that this was being worked out by the ministry of Trade and Industry.

Dr Venson-Moitoi said she recently engaged with her Chinese counterpart in China to renew relations after a long spell of not visiting China for 16 years to iron out the said issues.

“We needed a spell of cooling-in our relations because over the last couple of years, we have had a few projects that failed and thought it was necessary that we spoke at a higher level with Chinese government to express our feelings and ensure that we remove misunderstandings,” she said.

She said another key area of her mission to China was to share with the Chinese foreign minister that the reasons for engaging Chinese contractors by the Botswana government was intended to bring down sky-rocketing prices under construction companies, which has worked well in the past.

She however, said government was disappointed that of recent some contractors have dismally failed government projects.

“Those of serious concern were the two projects that were intended to turn around the country’s economy such as the Morupule B Power Plant project and Sir Seretse Khama International Airport that were intended to boost the economy,”  saying the two were intended to be economy drivers through exporting electricity to other countries and boosting the tourism industry respectively.

“I had to meet him to inform him that our country suffered because of Chinese companies which did not invest in the country, but only came on contracts to make money and go out after delivering the jobs,” she said. They also discussed collaborations in scholarships and  medical assistance. ends