02 Nov 2016

 As MPs deliberate on general principles of the Draft National Development Plan 11, emphasis has been put on ensuring that national projects are implemented within budget and timeously.

Debating the draft NDP 11 in Parliament on Tuesday, legislators said valuable lessons should have been learnt from national multi-million Pula projects that failed during NDP 10, such as the Morupule B Power Plant and the Palapye Glass Project.

Shashe West legislator, Mr Fidelis Molao said public funded entities should deliver more during NDP 11 and that incompetent individuals of who fail such entities should be taken to task.

“If we are to reach lofty goals that as a country we set for ourselves to become a high income economy, action must be taken against failing public entities,” he said. Mr Molao further said NDP 11 should be geared towards sustainable job creation and acceleration of infrastructure development for setting up businesses that will create the much needed employment opportunities for young people.

MP for Maun West Mr. Moremi Tawana called government to focus on curbing effects of climate change as it was the main impediment to food security. He also said agriculture sector has the potential to create ample jobs.

MP for Gaborone Central, Dr Phenyo Butale said the draft NDP 11 should have been explicit on job creation.  “I thought NDP 11 should have been permeating on jobs,” he said.

Dr Butale said there was no clear path with regard to implementation bottlenecks that have been an eye-sore and has failed many projects in the previous NDPs.

He also said the approach to development was not holistic and that the entire document had no clear vision with set targets that show how employment will be created, and within which sectors.

“There was no selection of sectors which shows where resources would be channeled in order to create jobs during NDP 11,” he said. MP for Maun East, Mr Konstantinos Markus said Environmental Impact Assessments should be more simplified and cheap to carry out as most projects have been delayed due to its unaffordability.

 He urged government to focus on water provision during the plan period and accessible road infrastructure for Ngamiland as it was one of the country’s tourism hubs.

MP for Ramotswa, Mr Samuel Rantuana said the draft NDP 11 has failed to provide as to how many jobs will be created and time frames but rather, it has only been stated that economic diversification and employment creation would be a priority.
He said the document was silent on non- performing institutions which continue to fail government.ENDS