12 Feb 2019

The establishment of the eight Special Economic Zone sites is at different levels of development, says the Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Moiseraele Goya.

Responding to a question in Parliament, Mr Goya stated four of the eight sites, namely Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (SSKIA), Fairgrounds, Lobatse and Pandamatenga had been prioritised.

Mr Goya stated that SSKIA had been identified as the pilot project, hence the Special Economic Zone Authorities (SEZA) and Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAB) were working together to develop and attract investment into the SEZ.

He said the master plan for that site had been designed and approved.

He said that would be followed by the detailed design of the area, which was to be re-tendered since the first tender was not awarded due to too high a quote. “The tender is anticipated to be out before end of February,” he said.

Mr Goya highlighted that the master planning of the remaining seven sites was to be done during the first quarter of 2019/2020 and would take six months to be completed and sixty potential investing companies had been profiled. The process, he said, would be fast tracked by finalisation of rules and regulations of SEZA as well as putting in place the incentives to be used for attracting investors.

Further, the assistant minister indicated that the value proposition for Francistown to be transformed into a mining, transport and logistic hub took into consideration the existing and planned infrastructure development such as the airport upgrading, roads linking to Kazungula Bridge and the envisaged Mosetse-Kazungula rail project. In addition, Mr Goya said some activities aligned to transforming Francistown were the city’s Vision 2022, where the local authority is promoting Francistown as a mining and logistic hub.

He said the department of roads was also planning to build a weigh bridge within the SEZ, while CAAB in partnership with SEZA was also carrying out a feasibility study to look into increasing the commuter traffic into the airport.

Francistown East legislator, Mr Buti Billy had asked the minister to state the progress on establishing SEZs as well as measures in place to transform Francistown into a transport hub.ENDS