29 Nov 2015

In its endevour to lure investors to Botswana, Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC), recently held a business seminar to raise awareness amongst Russian business people about investment opportunities in Botswana and enhance interest to the local market.

Speaking at the Russia-Botswana Business seminar, Russia Ambassador to Botswana, Mr Victor Sibilev, expressed gratitude that representatives of Botswana private sector had also demonstrated their interest in establishing ties with partners in Russia. 

Botswana, he said had achieved impressive results on its path to economic prosperity and social well-being, adding that “it comes as no surprise that the country is attracting an increasing number of investors from all over the world.” 

However, he said as for now, Ambassador Sibilev said Russian companies foundnd it hard to compete with foreign business entities. The scarce presence of Russian investors in the country, he said could probably be explained by factors, such as; shortage of information, lack of convenient transportation and established patterns of interaction between the two countries. 

Therefore, he commended BITC for organising the seminar, saying it would help to provide the necessary information and opportunity for sharing information and fostering direct links between the private sector of Russia and Botswana. 

“In our view, intensification of our business cooperation can be expected in such areas as; mining, energy, transport infrastructure, banking and tourism,” he said.

Botswana and Russia economies, Mr Silibev said had a lot in common and could help each other through setting up mutually beneficial business partnerships. Both countries, he said were over-reliant on export commodities. In the case of Russia, he said there were primarily oil and gas, whilst in Botswana there were diamonds and base metals. 

Given the leading positions of Russia and Botswana in the extraction and production of diamonds, Ambassador Sibilev said there were broad prospects for bilateral cooperation through the Joint-Stock Company- Alrosa.

The Russian corporation, he said had been working with the British diamond company called Botswana Diamonds, through a joint venture for the second year now. According to the partnership agreement, he said Alrosa was conducting extensive diamond exploration near Orapa, with ground samples showing a geological anomaly. 

It may be indicative of substantial diamond deposits in the area. Alrosa, he said obtained license from the government of Botswana for exploration works in new districts up to September 2018. 
After sorting, aggregation and marketing operations of De Beers were transferred from London to Gaborone, Ambassador said there had been a significant increase of interest to Botswana as one of the centres of the global diamond trade. 

He also noted that Production Association, Crystal, from the Russian city of Smolensk, which specialises in diamond polishing, regularly participates in Gaborone rough diamonds sales. Recently, he said Crystal extended its sightholder agreement with De beers for the period 2015 – 2018. 

Over the past years, he said a number of Russian companies from various regions were studying the possibility of investing into the local economy or supplying their products to the Botswana market.

In this regard, the Ambassador said the Embassy was addressed by companies, such as; Gazprombank Global Resources, Ecolab, Group of Companies Trust, Solarus Energy and others. Representatives of Gazprombank, he said visited Gaborone in March 2015 and held several meetings with the Embassy’s assistance, including those in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Bank of Botswana and BITC.

According to Mr Sibilev, the seminar was spurred by the agreements reached at the political consultations between the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, and the Russia Deputy Foreign Minister and Presidential Envoy for Africa and the Middle East Mr Mikhail Bogdanov in March 2015. 

During these political consultations, Ambassador said participants agreed to intensify trade and investment cooperation, which could be achieved, inter alia, via organising business missions. 

“We hope that the next mission will take place in Russia and can coincide with the visit of a Botswana high-level governmental delegation that might take place in the near future,” he added. Ends