16 Feb 2020

Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) consultant, Mr Letsogile Batsetswe says lack of stakeholder collaboration remains a challenge for Botswana in its quest to improve its rankings in the Global Competitiveness Index.

Speaking during a seminar on Botswana’s productivity and competitiveness update and stakeholder inclusiveness in Francistown recently, Mr Batsetswe said the availability of multi-stakeholder approaches made it possible for stakeholders to benchmark from others and also monitor the country’s progress.

He added that besides the multi-stakeholder approach, communication, coordination and competency were vital in improving the productivity and competitiveness of both the city and Botswana.

“No matter how much you try alone out there, you will not make it. As individuals, private and government we have to question ourselves on how we can make an impact in our sectors, city and the country,” he said.

Mr Batsetswe further said that to improve the country’s competitiveness, it was paramount that each individual thrived to play a meaningful role in the fourth industrial revolution and to improve productivity.

Presenting the global competitiveness report from World Economic Forum, he said the report showed that there was little productivity growth since the 2009 economic recession, although a lot of money had been injected into the global economy.

Another key issue from the report, he said, was that the world was not on track to meet its sustainable development goals, adding that most of the areas were not productive and could not sustain the economy.

According to the 2020 Global competitiveness report released by the World Economic Forum, Mr Batsetswe noted that Botswana scored 55.5 per cent as compared to 55.49 in the previous report, ranking the country at position 91 out of 141 countries.

He added that Singapore still remained the world’s most competitive economy, followed by the United States, Hong Kong SAR, Netherlands and Switzerland.

Although Botswana had shown improvements in its efforts towards improving its competitiveness, Mr Batsetswe said a lot still needed to be done to get to the top.

He further said despite Botswana scoring 55.5 per cent, there was improvement of the country’s competitiveness in some areas from the 12 pillars of competitiveness mapped by the World Economic Forum to measure economies.

He said the country was ranked the best in macro-economic stability pillar with a score of 100 per cent, adding that this was attainable as the country was able to manage government savings and budget.

However, he said there was still need for the country to improve its rankings in other pillars, most importantly innovation capability and Information Communication Technology (ICT) adoption as 33 other countries had also scored 100 per cent from the macro-economic stability.

Ministry of Investment Trade and Industry principal industrial officer, Ms Mmametsi Sitang indicated that Botswana was ranked position 87 out of 190 from the 2020 Doing Business Report.

This, she said, was ranked according to 10 indicators namely, starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving solvency.

“One of the most challenging issues in our country when doing business and not being able to compete well is the issue of the 48 days process of acquiring a business registration in Botswana while other countries do that within the day.

This, on its own, becomes a barrier to how investors view us as a country,” she said.

A consultant from BNPC, Mr Kabo Solomon also noted that labour management contributed to the country’s competitiveness and productivity.

He said challenges to employment relationships were poor leadership, poor work ethics unfairness and indiscipline as they lead to low staff morale, absenteeism, customer dissatisfaction and low productivity.

Presenting the turnaround solutions designed to solve business challenges, BNPC’s Mr Poloko Thobega said they were in the process to link companies with the right people and give them the right solutions.

He also said BNPC’s turnaround objectives was to support economic diversification and private sector growth.

However, to mention a few of the challenges according to successive World Economic Forum reports, there was the slow growth of companies with innovative business ideas ranking Botswana 113 out of 141 countries in 2019.

He also noted that few companies were embracing disruptive/risk business ideas, placing the country at position 117 out of 141. ENDS