07 Mar 2018

Parliament has been told that foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased steadily over the years as Botswana’s FDI inflows increased from P7.8 billion to P66.3 billion from 2000 to 2015.

Answering a question in Parliament on March 6, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Vincent Seretse stated that the overall inflow of FDI into Botswana was associated with activity in areas of natural endowments such as mineral resources particularly diamonds.

He noted however that a positive outlook for 2018 on Botswana’s recovery as commodity prices had shown indications for improvement, explaining that the improvement in global macroeconomic outlook and the modest rise in commodity prices had a direct effect on the profits and profitability of multi-national enterprises (MNEs), something that could have a positive effect on FDI flows.

That notwithstanding, Mr Seretse said his ministry had put in place several initiatives and strategies to promote both domestic and foreign direct investment.

Some of the strategies, he said included increased FDI attraction efforts, regional economic strategies and local economic development as well as International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) revitalisation strategy.

The minister added that the other strategies were the development of a national AGOA response strategy, SPEDU revitalisaton strategy, Botswana One Stop Service Centre (BOSSC), Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), as well as Doing Business Reforms Roadmap.

On increased FDI attraction, Minister Seretse said a tiered market approach in promoting investment across the world had been developed and was being implemented.

“The selection of markets and level of engagement is informed by the established market potential and the level of prior engagement by Botswana with a particular market,” he explained.

Regarding regional economic strategies and local economic development, he stated that in efforts to promote domestic investment, the ministry had embarked on aggressive domestic investment and outreach programmes.

As for the IFSC, he said an IFSC revitalisation action plan had been developed with a view to stimulating investment within the financial services cluster.

The national AGOA response strategy was developed to advise government on how to systematically take advantage of the AGOA dispensation, attract investment into identified sectors that could benefit from international trade and increase the number of exporters in Botswana under AGOA, he said.

Mr Seretse said the recent approval by Cabinet of SPEDU incentives would spur investor’s interest to consider the region as an ideal investment destination.

Further, he said in August 2017, BOSSC was launched with the aim of shortening and simplifying administrative procedures and guidelines for issuance of business approvals, permits and licenses while the EPA gave Botswana access to other market opportunities together with those presented by the Tripartite Free Trade Area and the Continental Free Trade Area.

On the Doing Business Reforms Roadmap, Mr Seretse in 2015, government approved the roadmap to improve the investment climate in Botswana.

MP Buti Billy of Francistown East had asked the minister to update Parliament on the strategy in place to address the low turn up by domestic investors and foreign based investors. ENDS