08 Nov 2017

Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) has since its inception in 2012 attracted over P10 billion worth of foreign and domestic capital investments, resulting in the creation of 8 831 additional jobs.

President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama said this in his State of the Nation Address in Parliament on November 6.

He said the total business expansion investment level stood at P618.6 million in 2016/17 compared to P377 million in 2015/16.

He said Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) has, despite two periods of recession, also experienced growth with investment assets increasing from P1.2 billion to P2 billion over the past decade.

“This growth has supported over 5 000 jobs across various sectors of the economy,” he said.

President Khama also said BDC has re-positioned itself for further growth with over 1 000 new jobs having been created since 2015 from new investments.

On the business environment, President Khama noted that in April this year, Botswana was ranked number one in the Africa Investment Index by Quantum Global Holdings, but warned that the values would be undermined if the country failed to improve on the Ease of Doing Business Rankings.

He said efforts were underway to further enhance the business environment through the implementation of a doing business reforms road map, with an accompanying regulatory impact assessment strategy.

“As part of this process, in August 2017, government, in consultation with Business Botswana and other stakeholders, took the decision to lift a wide range of onerous tender compliance certification processes,” he said.

He said government continued to leverage Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to improve the provision of services.

“To this end, a One Stop Service Centre has been set up,” he said.

President Khama said the Companies Act and the Registration of Business Names Act had been reviewed to enable online registration, and that the measures should improve turnaround times for company registration from days to hours. ENDS