27 May 2018

Okavango Diamond Company managing director, Mr Marcus Ter Haar has implored the business community in the northern part of Botswana to come up with new concepts of doing business.

Officially opening the 24th Business Botswana Northern Trade Fair in Francistown on May 25, Mr Ter Haar also encouraged business owners to implore and exploit new ideas for their businesses to do well in international markets.

He explained that the evolution of the international business field required that business owners should add value to the economy by creating a new business venture through effective use of knowledge, passion, dreams and desires.

Mr Ter Haar appealed to the business community in the northern part of the country to evaluate the new situation and make adjustments in the economy of the country.

He also pleaded with the business community to take advantage of technologies, adding that there was nothing wrong by copying and implementing business ideas from abroad locally.

He also appealed to the business community to explore and exploit the human capital, saying many people were hungry for work and could assist in the economic development of the country.

On other issues, Mr Ter Haar said “though tourism is the new engine of economic growth, there is still a new sense of confidence in the mining industry particularly in the diamond industry.”

He said there was still potential on diamonds given the high demand of the precious stone globally, adding “diamonds are coming to an end but not time soon.”

Mr Ter Haar advised Batswana not to underestimate mining fortunes as evidenced by this year’s theme: Is tourism Botswana’s hope amidst dwindling mining fortunes?”

For his part, Business Botswana president, Mr Gobusamang Keebine said the fair was one of the most accessible best practices for connecting to new markets because trade fairs provide access to more clients from more places that one could ever visit during a typical work day.

“The aim of this fair is to provide exhibitors with an opportunity to actively promote their businesses and to network with other exhibitors. The fair presents a significant opportunity for business branding and creation of new product visibility as well as to promote existing products,” he said.

Mr Keebine underscored the critical role the private sector played such as value creation, adding that all must strive to create or cultivate innovative synergies between public sector and private sector which could go a long way in transforming the business landscape and the lives of Batswana.

He said Business Botswana aimed to improve stakeholders' engagement, saying the evidence was the high number of exhibitors from government departments.

“I would like to see the private sector participating fully in fairs even though the 24th trade fair may well be a starting point for those in the private sector,” he said.

Mr Keebine said the private sector must take the lead, not government in doing business in the country, and complemented efforts by government in seeing the importance of the private sector in growing the economy.

He appealed to the business community to challenge their business tactics by constantly asking themselves how inventive, objective and creative they were, so that they could review areas for improvement. ENDS