08 Dec 2016

Batswana face a number of challenges in their daily existence, and innovative solutions are necessary to improve this situation, the Leader of Opposition, Mr Duma Boko has told Parliament.

In his response to the State-of-the-Nation Address delivered on Monday (December 5) by President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama, Mr Boko outlined the various socio-political and economic challenges that face the nation.

“A reported 20 per cent live below the poverty datum line, more than 25 per cent of our children are undernourished with many more barely surviving at nutrition ranges, measured in calories per day,” Mr Boko said.

The Gaborone Bonnington North legislator added that unemployment levels are high, particularly amongst the youth, pointing out that the formal economy generated an average of 3 000 jobs per year between 2003 and 2010 while between 15 000 and 20 000 graduates were entering the job market annually.

“The bulk of jobs the government has been able to inspire in recent years are low paying, unsustainable jobs emanating from programmes such as ISPAAD, Ipelegeng and Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP),” Mr Boko said.Mr Boko decried the state of the manufacturing sector, which he said is stagnant, and also said that Botswana lags behind countries of similar income in the area of innovation, technology uptake and business sophistication.

He said there should be policy emphasis on economic sectors where Botswana can build global competitiveness.

“Focus on sectors where Botswana has continuing advantages due to being more advanced than other African countries, such as financial services or having resources exploited locally, such as diamonds, mining, tourism and agriculture. Also, align talent development with these focus sectors,” Mr Boko said.

He added that the country should invest in high speed broadband information technology, power and water infrastructure in order to attract and retain investors in the target sectors.

“Botswana has started developing clusters in five key sectors, namely diamonds, other mining, cattle, tourism, finance and other services.

Most traction has been achieved in the diamond cluster, including Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB) relocation. However, other sectors have not taken off satisfactorily for a variety of reasons including a lack of capacity and capabilities to implement,” Mr Boko said.

He said that in order to build capacity of these clusters, governmental and other institutions including universities, standards authorities, think tanks and trade associations should support them.

Furthermore, he said banks, venture funds and government support agencies should be on hand to assist financially.

Mr Boko said tourism should be expanded in the Okavango-Makgadikgadi and South East areas including Gaborone.

“Increase capacity of hoteling, both local and globally recognised hotel brands, invest in world class events and conferencing facilities with state of the art technology connectivity,” Mr Boko said. ENDS