06 Jul 2016

Francistown City mayor, Ms Sylvia Muzila has urged councillors to take the Local Economic Development Strategy seriously, saying it has the potential to stimulate the economy and empower the Francistown community.

Speaking during a special full council sitting on Tuesday, Ms Muzila said the strategy guided by the economic assessment conducted in 2014 would direct the city in implementing projects and programmes that would stimulate the economy.

She said through collective effort by all local leaders using the city’s comparative advantages, the strategy would address the development challenges the city face.

“The implementation of the strategy will also facilitate the city in achieving sustainable development goals,” she said.

In addition, she said the strategy would use the comparative advantages of the city and engage all key stakeholders in the economy to meet the growing demands of its citizens

For her part economic planner, Ms Boipelo Tshekiso said the council had a major role to play in providing long-term strategic planning in the city in terms of economic development and spatial development.

She highlighted that the analysis of the city was led by the retail sector with low industrial activity and unfavourable business environment.

Ms Tshekiso noted that the city was experiencing high unemployment rates, poverty and inequality in wealth distribution due to its growing population and the inability of the local economy to absorb new individuals who enter the labour market.

“Even though the literacy rate is high, the city is experiencing low life expectancy rate coupled with high prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS, highlighting the preventive behaviour of the economical active persons,” Ms Tshekiso said.

Furthermore she said through the SWOT analysis, the business environment enabling survey as well as stakeholder identification has pointed out room for expansion and growth.

Ms Tshekiso said they were ready and prepared to implement their goals and objectives as the future of the city relied on the investments the city made to ensure that it was a safe place to live.

Councillors appreciated the strategy and requested that implementation be speed up. ENDS