In this regard, he noted that this was the time for stimulating the economy since there were sufficient reserves and move away not to adopt the practice that was done before of not knowing how long the recession will last.

He said the programme is geared towards stimulating the economy, diversifying it and this will result in accelerated job creation that he announced at the party congress.

He said five areas have been identified in building construction and road construction, tourism development, agriculture production and manufacturing.

President Khama said under construction there was backlog eradication that emanated from the fact that over the years, government has not been able to build more classrooms, accommodation for public officers, and tribal administration offices for accommodating chiefs and headmen in different parts of the country.

He said there was also backlog of internal roads in a number of towns and villages.

The President said the projects that were deferred during the recession will be brought forward to the projects that were intended for this financial year.

President Khama said under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, there was backlog in teachers quarters, classrooms and that more money will be given to ministry for maintenance of buildings. He also said more laboratories and classrooms will be built to relieve congestion.

Under Ministry Of Health’s backlog eradication, he said a number of clinics and health posts will be upgraded and that a number of dilapidated hospitals will be refurbished.

President Khama said under Lands and Housing, government will embark on accelerated land servicing programme because there is demand for serviced land in different parts of the country.

“These will deliver industrial, commercial and residential plots that will create employment opportunities as people occupy them for business purposes,” he said.

He said he was adamant that with all the construction that will be happening throughout the country, a lot of construction companies which some closed down, will be able to operate in all corners of Botswana.

President Khama said they will ensure that with all the construction going on, materials are sourced from local producers and suppliers and other business enterprises in the country to benefit.

He also said several roads around the country will be built, short access roads and decongesting the AI and construction of bypasses in areas with huge volume of traffic. He said young people who graduated in Information Technology will benefit by providing IT services in government entities.

President Khama said under tourism development many areas in the country will be considered such as wildlife merging areas and dams tourism as well as promoting domestic tourism as much as possible.

He said in agriculture production, although there were water challenges government will focus on treating water, waste or saline for agriculture purposes. Under manufacturing, he said programme of EDD seeks to ensure that the buying power of government, parastatal and councils’ is used to support local produce.

“We will ensure that there is monitoring and that we are making full use of our local products to benefit every Motswana, big or small to benefit from government procurement to sustain them” he said.

He said private sector will be taken on board and a list of imports drawn, of which the private sector will be persuaded to consider embarking on manufacturing as well as for investors to do the same.

He said setting up of special economic zones that will comprise leather park, agriculture, manufacturing, auto components, diamonds in different parts of the country where there will be specific zones set aside for economic activities. This, he said will also create employment and diversify the economy. Ends