04 Sep 2018

China has offered Botswana a P340 million grant and further cancelled the P80 million the country owed her.

This was disclosed by President Mokgweetsi Masisi in an interview at the end of his three-day state visit to China before attending the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) which kicked off in Beijing yesterday.

President Masisi said during official talks President Xi Jingping expressed keenness in assisting Botswana to shape her developmental path through his common development for all principle.

He said he chose China as the first destination of his trans-regional state visit with the full intension of broadening and strengthening bilateral ties with the Asian country.

President Masisi said Botswana and China had a bilateral traditional friendship established and nurtured by the older generations of leaders of the two countries.

Mr Masisi said he was accompanied on his visit by some cabinet ministers, business community representatives and key government decision makers as well as captains of industry because he intended to keep a momentum of high level exchanges with China to make the best out of the two countries’ bilateral relations.

He said China was endowed with skills that could benefit Botswana in areas such as infrastructure development, capacity building and Information Communication Technology.

“China is a notable player on the world stage and a country with sanity such as Botswana would not miss out on the opportunities provided by China. We are here to stay and Batswana should expect a lot from this China mission,” he said.

President Masisi said his administration was keen to establish partnerships with Chinese investors to create employment opportunities following the signing of some agreements and reforms intended to ease doing business in Botswana.

With regards to poor workmanship on the part of some Chinese contractors engaged on projects in Botswana, the President said measures would be put in place to ensure that what transpired previously would not be repeated.

“I am not selling the country to the Chinese, there will be some controls in place and Batswana should not be worried,” he said. Ends