12 Sep 2018

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry Ms Peggy Serame has explained that implementation of the Selebi Phikwe Economic Development Unit (SPEDU) regional revitalisation strategy was moving at a snail’s pace.

Presenting the executive summary of the ministry to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Gaborone on September 11, Ms Serame pointed that the revitalisation strategy was however achieving some progress.

“We are continuing with implementation of the revitalisation strategy, but I have to say it has not been as fast as one would have loved. Since the BCL mine closed we have created over 750 jobs, but they fluctuate on a monthly basis,” she said.

Ms Serame said what the ministry had done in terms of implementation of the strategy was to come up with a number of incentives for the SPEDU region.

She said although the incentive plan was approved by cabinet, it took a bit of time to actually operationalise it.

She said one such incentive was the reduction of tax required to be paid by companies investing in the SPEDU region, which had been set at five per cent for the first five years and ten per cent in the ensuing years.

 “The other incentive, which is also major, is the government off-take agreement, which is to say if you are producing something that government needs and the prices and the quality are competitive, then you can enjoy an off-take of 30 per cent of what you produce.

So, we have also made the template of the off-take agreement,” she said.

She said a number of companies had set up businesses in the region in agro-processing and other sectors.

Ms Serame cited unavailability of serviced land as one challenge they faced.

She said while land was made available to SPEDU in Selebi Phikwe and Tati, some of the land was not serviced.

On other issues, Ms Serame said the ministry was reviewing the Industrial Development Act as well as the Trade Act in order to reduce the number of licenses required to operate a business.

She said under the doing business reforms, the ministry should look into enabling business to flourish.

She said the ministry intended to reduce the number of licenses so that only licenses that effectively have impact on the environment would remain.

On the online registration of businesses, the permanent secretary said all laws relating to the issue had been passed by Parliament.

She said they were currently working with experts from New Zealand to ensure that the online registration of business names and companies would commence next year.

On the issue of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), she said the master-plan for Sir Seretse Khama International Airport SEZ was approved following a number of consultations.

 “What will start at the airport is infrastructure development because we have a piece of land at the airport. Before we can bring in businesses we will have to develop infrastructure. Hopefully we can do that in collaboration with the private sector,” she said. ENDS