05 Nov 2017

Vice President, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi says government is addressing unemployment through a number of initiatives such as encouraging innovation, looking for investors and for multi-national agencies to operate in the country.

Speaking during a courtesy call by English businessman, Sir Richard Branson on November 2, Mr Masisi said another avenue was through trade with neighbouring countries.

The Vice President said Botswana had a youthful population hence the need to harness government resources and train them.

He said through training and encouragement, the youth could venture into various sectors such as agriculture, services and call centres.

He said Botswana has advantage of being stable, adding the abundant wildlife and undisturbed flora and fauna of the country was due to the high value, low volume policy adopted by government.

The Vice President said government wanted tourists to enjoy their freedom and leisure while in the country.

On energy development, he said Botswana, through BITRI, was developing innovative solar energy products to take advantage of abundant sunshine.

He further said Botswana was not only facing a challenge of shortage of doctors but also challenges in efficiency, technology and disease burden.

For his part, Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, said he was happy to be in Botswana and looked for ways in which he could assist such as employment creation and renewable energy.

He further said he worked with an organisation in some African countries that had enabled rural women to offer medical assistance through the use of technology. ENDS