18 Apr 2017

There is need to increase the country’s  competitiveness in order to lure investors and grow export volumes.

This was said by Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Biggie Butale at a Prague Club Committee (PCC) meeting in Kasane recently.

Mr Butale also noted that while Botswana might have improved in some pillars, it had regressed in some such as goods market efficiency.

“We need to work tirelessly in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the country’s trade financing environment,” he added.

The Berne Union Prague Club Committee (PCC) is a body made up of 37 new and maturing export credit insurers from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The forum is used for information exchange, education and business networking and Botswana is represented by Botswana Export Credit Insurance (BECI).

The centre of discussion at this year’s meeting included political risk, trade finance and credit insurance as well as the African business environment and working with local partners to better manage disruptions to commodity and forex prices.

The minister noted that over the past six years, BECI had supported credit transactions amounting to P6.8 million and covered the risk to facilitate trade and grow the economy. “Without this cover, some buyers could not have secured credit facilities with their suppliers,” Mr Butale added.

He also noted that BECI had paid claims amounting to P15 million in the past six year period. “Through BECI, the government is able to provide political risk cover to its exporters who may fail to recover their debts from external buyers whose countries experience unstable political environments leading to payment defaults,” he stated.

Botswana Investment Trade Cooperation director for strategy and competitiveness, Mr Keletsositse Olebile highlighted the need to raise awareness about what Botswana could offer investors.

“We are often clouded by the perception of Africa associated with corruption, wars and famine yet as a country we are ranked alongside developed countries such as the USA and Australia in corruption perception indices,” he noted.

Mr Olebile noted that as a result, Botswana’s foreign direct investment was growing at a declining rate. Botswana is the first African country to host the Berne Union Prague club committee meeting. BOPA