19 Nov 2015

The Vice President, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi says government will take bold decisions where necessary to change what needs to be changed for effective delivery of public services.

Presiding over the 39th High Level Consultative Council meeting (HLCC) on Thursday November 19, Mr Masisi said a programme to re-invent government have started and some actions have already been taken to smoothen the processes.

Key sectors that will drive Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), he said, have been identified as follows; infrastructure, agriculture, tourism and manufacturing and services, enabled by the establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD).

He said the implementation of the ESP is focusing primarily on; accelerated land servicing, boosting local manufacturing and services with increased citizen participation, road construction, improving agricultural production to achieve food security, kick-starting economic activities in rural areas, upgrading of education and healthcare facilities and leveraging ICT for the creation of an e-society through expanded e-services.

All these, the Vice President said have good potential to facilitate other sectors of the economy which will expand the growth of the economy and create jobs in the short to long-term.

Whilst the accelerated land servicing and construction programmes will provide a short to medium term impetus to economic growth and employment creation, he said the investments in tourism, agriculture and manufacturing and services, through the SEZs and EDD, will provide an opportunity for essential diversification of the economy with an accent on export led growth and therefore sustainable employment.

Throughout the process of conceptualising employment creation initiatives and ESP, Mr Masisi said extensive consultations were done with the private sector.

For that reason, he said private sector is now expected to play their part and deliver in response to the implantation of ESP and to continue with their recommendations and resources of manpower and even assisting in co-financing some of the programmes, such as land servicing and other self-liquidating projects.

“ESP and employment creation should be private sector led and driven with successful business creating sustainable employment,” he added.

He cautioned against the issue of high charges to government by some private businesses, saying the matter was also discussed at the last HLCC meeting.

“We gather that for some, ESP means ‘money has arrived’. We hope that private businesses will consider the bigger picture and see ESP as an opportunity to contribute to the development of the nation and not as an opportunity to profiteer at the expense of fellow citizens and tax payers,” he stated.

Mr Masisi expressed concern that some traders and retailers are taking advantage of the current differential of around 30 per cent between the Pula and Rand exchange rates, by simply sticking the same numerical Pula price over the numerical Rand price.

Therefore, he advised such parties to desist from the unfortunate practice by not passing on the exchange rate benefit and of taking advantage of consumers.

If the practice does not cease, he said, government will consider appropriate measures to discourage the practice. 

Botswana, the Vice President said, came through without massive job losses or liquidations in the private sector during the Global Financial Crisis which commenced in 2008/2009.

Additionally, during this period, he said another positive was the growth of the non-mining sector, particularly the trade, hotels and restaurants and the finance and business sectors.

This, he said was an indication that “where there are challenges we can also create opportunities and in this instance there was progress with the diversification of the economy. We are today faced with new challenges in the form of market volatility and the sudden drop in prices of mineral commodities including diamonds, most of all.”

He also said this need to be seen as another opportunity to spur the diversification of the economy even further, as an essential requirement of a balanced economy which will be better suited to deal with shocks of the future. ENDS