10 Feb 2019

Government should provide a conducive environment for economic growth.

Such an environment entails adequate infrastructure and better connectivity for the enhancement of productivity and efficiency.

This was said by MP for Mmathethe/Molapowabojang, Dr Alfred Madigele when contributing to the 2019/20 budget debate recently.

“Government needs to invest on the development of key economic enabler projects that will support growth such as transportation and logistics,” he said.

Dr Madigele said infrastructure and utilities such as electricity and water supply, telecommunication services and sewerage systems were essential towards creating a conducive economic environment.

Dr Madigele highlighted that investing in infrastructure was vital to economic development, a key to achieving higher and stable economic growth.

“Infrastructure plays a key role in facilitating trade, as the road density network, air transport, railways and logistics will result in increased trade flows that will result in positive economic growth,” he said.

He said government investment in Information and Communications Technology infrastructure would enhance trade, as the numbers of telephone lines, mobile phones, broadband access, internet users and secure internet servers were found to have positive trade effects for both exporters and importers.

Dr Madigele said it was crucial for government to develop road networks that lead to production areas such as farms and tourism destinations.

The development of roads and other infrastructures particularly to farms, he said, would enable easy accessibility of farm products to the market.

 He further challenged government to transform the education system from producing white collar jobs graduates to vocationally skilled human resource.

The recent boom of the construction industry, he said, was a clear testimony that there was need to produce more hands-on vocationally trained manpower. 

He therefore asked for a capacitation of vocational and technical training colleges to make them more appealing to students.

He said it was important that the country’s vocational education was at par with the needs of the economy.

For his part, Tonota legislator, Mr Thapelo Olopeng acknowledged the 2019/2020 budget proposal, referring to it as the peoples’ budget, saying it addresses pertinent issues that affect Batswana.

Mr Olopeng further applauded government for creating an enabling environment for foreign investors to do business in the country.

He said government should not be the sole employment creator, hence pleaded with the private sector to come on board and establish industries that would create employment for the locals.

He however said it was upon government to create a conducive environment for the private sector to thrive.

Specially Elected Member of Parliament, Mr Mephato Reatile also pleaded with government to invest in infrastructure development, noting that investments in infrastructure could lead to direct and indirect jobs, and usually have spillover effects into other economic opportunities.

He noted that good transport systems and agro-logistic services helped move freight from farms to locations where value could be added, such as the intermediate processing, packaging and sorting of agricultural produce.

Mr Reatile also acknowledged the smooth negotiations between the public service bargaining council and government when discussing the public servants salary adjustments.

He however pleaded with government to abolish the A band salary scale as he said its remuneration was way below the standard of living. ENDS