22 Apr 2013

Botswana must devise robust and strategically mapped out economic diversification plan with implementation measures that address the dwindling diamond revenue.

Former Debswana Managing director,  Mr Blackie Marole said this at a debate on ‘The Challenges and Opportunities of Economic Diversification’ held at Maru-a- Pula School on Saturday as part of Maitisong Festival activities.

The debate attracted the brawny brains of Marole, former high Court Judge Unity Dow, director of Bongaka Health Dr Alfred Madigele as well as youthful entrepreneur, Mr Barolong Mouwane.

Mr Marole said, “The reality is that the diamond curve for Botswana will ultimately fall, and for us to be successful with our economic diversification efforts, we need to have the end product in mind.”

He said as an alternative solution to the dwindling diamond revenues, coal has a strong potential that can turn Botswana into a power centre in the region citing readily available coal export markets such as India and other countries in Africa.

“Economic diversification is a very difficult thing to achieve but we need to make a breakthrough to raise the falling diamond curve,” he said.

Mr Marole said coal is Botswana’s comparative competitive advantage which must be fully exploited.

He noted that “Botswana is ideally located and has low sovereign risk, Transparent Mining and Mineral Act, good infrastructure which place us in a better position of delivery.”

On resource management, he commended government for its sound and apt leadership but said it was highly imperative to shift focus from its largely social development policies and instead direct much attention to harnessing and developing the chamber of commerce.

For her part, Dow advocated for a capitalist economy and called for paradigm shift in how some segments of the society scrutinize the notion of wealth.

She said for Botswana to diversify, Batswana need to embrace and appreciate wealthy people.

On government land policies and regulation, Dow said, land is one of the principal resources in economic diversification and Batswana face daunting challenges to attain.

“We have no shortage of land, what we have is bad planning for land,” she said.

Diagnosing the economic diversification challenge which he termed ‘a patient’, Dr Madigele said the patient needs multiple treatments citing sustainability, export diversification, as well as the need for Batswana to adopt and operate with business sophistication.

“Although we fare better when compared to other countries, we need to treat corruption and inequality so as to improve our global competitiveness,” he said.

Dr Madigele said there was need for politicians to do away with political rhetoric and focus on issue based solutions for the people,” as this will to a larger extent assist economic diversification efforts.

The youthful entrepreneur, Mr Mouwane said the focus should be on moulding entrepreneurs who are employees of the economy.

He said currently government is a major economic player but that needs to change if economic diversification was to be achieved. “Government is just too big, and there is no way the economy would prosper if we have a government with a big foot print,” he said.

On business procedures, he said there were many regulations that affect apt business execution and emphasised the need to ensure easiness and flexibility of doing business in Botswana. ENDS