18 Mar 2019

Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Mr Kitso Mokaila has requested Parliament to approve the ministry’s P1.2 billion budget proposals.

Presenting the 2019/2020 budget proposals, Mr Mokaila indicated that the proposed P1.2 billion which represented a 1.6 per cent increase composed of P434 million and P791.7 million for development and recurrent budgets respectively.

He said bulk of the development budget was proposed for major products under the dams tourism initiative such as the construction of basic infrastructure for tourism development around the country’s major dams and the Kasane-Kazungula redevelopment project intended to diversify the tourism sector.

“The ministry has made significant progress with the dam’s tourism initiative and the second phase of the project has commenced for Letsibogo, Shashe and Thune dams. This also involves the design of bulk infrastructure, basic tourism infrastructure and environment impact assessment for all the aforementioned dams,” he said.

With regard to the proposed recurrent budget, Mr Mokaila stated that P74 million was earmarked for Botswana Tourism Organisation subvention, while the remaining balance would be distributed to the rest of ministry’s departments.

He highlighted that his ministry was in the process of developing a tourism policy to guide the tourism development in the country and pave way for marketing the country as a destination of choice.

He said the ministry was also developing a National Tourism Master Plan with the project scope covering a detailed review and analysis of the tourism sector in Botswana, taking into account the government’s vision and policy for future tourism development particularly focusing on the role played by the private sector and citizen participation in the sector.

In an effort to promote participation of the locals in the tourism industry, Mr Mokaila said his ministry had since 2011 reserved some of the tourism activities for citizens or companies which are wholly owned by citizens.

Minister Mokaila stated that heritage and cultural tourism was also one of the fastest emerging competitive niche within the sector and it had become increasingly one of the future cornerstones of tourism diversification.

“There is currently the development of 20 heritage sites, two new museums and refurbishment of the exhibition facilities and the development of all these heritage resources has the potential to enhance the tourism diversification drive and improve livelihoods,” he said.

Furthermore, Minister Mokaila stated that environmental management, natural resources conservation and beneficiation thereof through tourism were pre-requisites to sustainable development as espoused through the Sustainable Development Goals.

He said the ministry had therefore found it befitting to revamp the community based natural resources management so as to mobilise communities to sustainably utilise the resources around their settlements. ENDS