02 Nov 2016

The Member of Parliament for Tati East, Mr Samson Guma has said the National Development Plan (NDP) 11 might have to be adjusted to accommodate challenges emanating from the provisional liquidation of BCL Mine.  

Debating the draft NDP 11 in Parliament on Tuesday, Mr Guma said he was ready to sacrifice developments earmarked for his constituency for the benefit of residents of Francistown, Matsiloje and Selebi Phikwe who have been affected by the BCL closure.

The Tati East legislator called upon his fellow MPs to be cautious when debating the draft plan, saying the country was facing numerous challenges hence the need to come up with priority projects. He said it was time government undertook developments that added value to the economy rather than for political reasons even if it meant losing their positions.

Mr Guma said there was need to tackle high levels of unemployment in the country especially amongst the youth.

For his part, Bonnington South MP, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe said the NDP 11 document was silent on Vision 2036 although it should be used as a strategy to move the country forward. He said every country should have a dream, driven by the Vision and achieved through the national development plan.

Mr Ndaba said there had to be a marketing strategy, organisational strategy and the financial strategy.

He said Botswana enjoyed economic growth of nine per cent between 1971 and 2008, but had recently slowed to less than four per cent.

The economy, he said, remained  “extremely undiversified” and had been unable to create sustainable high paying jobs.  Mr Ndaba further said the society was unequal and economy was not inclusive as illustrated by the Gini Coefficient ratio of 0.64.

He said although progress had been made in the fight against poverty, it still remained high at 19 – 20 per cent. Looking at the Global Competitiveness Report, he said Botswana did well only in the macroeconomic environment, ranking 13 out of 144 countries, but scored average in other indices.

The African Transformation Report also showed that Botswana had a lot to do to diversify its economy especially in manufacturing and agriculture.

The Bonnington South MP said there was need to develop few globally competitive sectors as well as manpower.

He further said the country should concentrate on few clusters and ensure they were adequately resourced. ENDS