20 Sep 2018

Botswana has put in place Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA) to charter an economic path targeted at achieving economic diversification from diamonds.  

SEZA director for investor attraction and monitoring, Mr Joel Ramaphoi, said this during the Business Botswana annual general meeting on September 19.

He told Business Botswana members to position themselves to participate in the government initiative that sought to yield sustainable economic returns.

Mr Ramaphoi said the SEZA was a relatively new parastatal that started operations in March.

Mr Ramaphoi posited that the first recommendation for establishing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) began in 2005 by the Business Advisory Council but the policy was effected in 2011 and subsequently passed by an act of Parliament in 2015.

Furthermore, he encouraged the business community to participate with agility in the initiative as new companies setting up in the Special Economic Zone areas enjoyed special regulations, incentives and institutional frameworks that were different from the rest of the economy.

In this instance, he said, government created trade exceptions from its own rules adding that businesses that were set up enjoyed special jurisdictions such as low corporate tax.

“The rules of commerce that govern operations in the SEZs are different from those which apply to the rest of the economy,” he said.

He said that SEZA had established eight SEZs which would be used as prime business incubators which if successful would be applied to the rest of the economy.

Mr Ramaphoi noted that the SEZs Act empowered the Authority to acquire land and provide basic infrastructure such as roads, utilities, Information Communication and Technology infrastructure and very basic business necessities.

“After developing the land  we then sub lease the land to investors for them to undertake their business activities for a minimum of 50 years. Every development or activity that takes place within the zone should be approved by SEZ Authority,” he said.

He said that it was an opportunity for property developers and the private sector to take part in as they knew economic development entity should allow for Public Private Partnerships (PPP) as well as independent developers in the SEZs.

He highlighted that independent developers should be given priority adding that the zones should be regulated by the SEZ Authority.

He expressed optimism that the national project is taking off accordingly.

“Before the end of the year we shall begin to see something happening. These are gentle revolutions that bring better life to Batswana as is also aligned to National Development Plans. We have eight sites for SEZs which are sector specific, we look at the function and the location. We have processing and non-processing sectors, manufacturing, and multi-sectorial zones such as financial services at Fairgrounds,” he said.

Further, he noted that the Authority targeted food production, agro business to cut on the high import bill, water management, energy, financial service providers who would manage in the country, pharmaceuticals, leather processing, garments, jewelry, transport and logistics, ICT, aviation and technology.

“We are talking new investments, new businesses. Existing companies will not be allowed to operate in the special economic zones areas,” he said.

Mr Ramaphoi said the areas earmarked for the SEZs included Fairgrounds in Gaborone, Sir Seretse International Khama Airport, Pandamatenga for agro-processing, Francistown which would be turned into a dry port, Tuli Block for horticulture, Palapye which would be turned oil and gas city as well as Selebi Phikwe.

He said SEZA would continue to engage to see which other areas could be turned into SEZs. ENDS