02 Feb 2016

The tourism sector has potential to contribute positively to growth and job creation, says Minister of Finance and Development Planning. 

Presenting the 2016 budget speech, Mr Kenneth Matambo said government would continue to create an enabling environment for tourism businesses including encouraging joint partnerships between individuals, citizen companies and non-citizens. 

He noted that a number of initiatives were also being undertaken which include the Dams Tourism project, Gaborone Precinct project and the Kasane-Kazungula Redevelopment project currently under preparation. 

He said with the initiatives to grow tourism in the country, Botswana was voted the best destination country to visit in 2016 by Lonely Planet Publication, a global travel and tourism publication. 

On a related matter, the minister said the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) initiative and the establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) were considered important in promoting both domestic and foreign direct investments, thus boosting growth and creating the much needed employment opportunities in the country. 

Furthermore, Mr Matambo said these initiatives were consistent with other government policies such as the Citizen Economic Empowerment, and initiatives to develop entrepreneurial culture among Batswana, especially the young emerging business entrepreneurs, which will in turn develop local capacity to diversify the economy. 

He also said the EDD initiative continued to be one of government’s priority areas in promoting domestic production, and consumption of local products. 

“In December 2014, government issued a directive to reinforce EDD by instructing all government and parastatal organisations to prioritise procurement of locally produced goods and services, in addition to awarding price preference to local enterprises,” said the minister. 

The implementation of the SEZs programme will be in three phases, phase one will include three sites being the mixed use near Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, Gaborone Fairgrounds financial services and Pandamatenga Integrated farming, agro business and food processing.  Ends