22 Jun 2017

Several Swedish companies have over the years invested a total of US$57.3 million in Botswana, with corresponding employment levels of 269 people.

Speaking at the Sweden-Botswana business networking lunch in Stockholm, Minister of  Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Vincent Seretse said Botswana was therefore undoubtedly encouraged by the increasing level of interest by Swedish companies to invest in Botswana.

“I would like to take a moment to openly invite other Swedish businesses to consider utilising Botswana as an effective launch pad for your investment interests in Africa. The existence of a Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty between

Botswana and Sweden, which came into effect on the 1st of July 1993, should have facilitated more investment by Swedish companies into Botswana than we have currently recorded,” he said.

Further, the minister said the low investment levels may be a sign that the two countries did not effectively expose each other to the abundant investment opportunities that existed between them.

He said Botswana had long devised appropriate policies and frameworks aimed at utilising the country’s desirable attributes of peace and stability,  location advantage in SADC, prudent economic management, skills availability and investment grade sovereign credit ratings to position itself as an investment gateway for Africa.

“We are here to share with you some of these policies, despite the long standing bilateral relations between our two countries, trade between Botswana and Sweden has remained negligible with the balance of trade in favour of Sweden.

I am informed that Sweden exports to Botswana increased from US$3.7 million to US$5.2 million between 2015 and 2016. Export products mainly include products of HS Chapter 85, notably telephone sets,” he said.  

He said there was an opportunity to increase trade flows between Botswana and Sweden, especially through the recently signed SADC/EU Economic Partnership Agreement, given that Botswana government was also keen to explore the

Open Trade Gate Sweden to assist Botswana companies with market entry information and strategies to effectively export to Sweden.

He said Botswana’s long-standing management of her economy attested to her readiness to effectively host sophisticated global, multinational companies, and his ministry was accelerating the implementation of reforms to improve the ease of doing business in Botswana.

Botswana, he said, was in a process of drafting a Business Facilitation Law that would cause consequential amendments to many of the current laws that impact the ease of doing business in Botswana. BOPA