15 Jun 2020

Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) Ms Peggy Serame says engineering technology is an essential asset to the economic growth of the country.

Speaking during a courtesy visit at Dewerd Technologies Group based in Rasesa recently, Ms Serame said the manufacturing sector was one of the priority areas that government must focus on. She commended DWD engineering for their growth over the years.

She noted that it was the ministry’s duty to ensure that going forward a path was established for the company to develop partnerships and linkages with stakeholders.

“We want to see more companies being serviced by this company rather than them taking their machines to be serviced elsewhere outside the country, or having their machines being manufactured elsewhere when we have the capabilities in our country,”she said.

She further said MITI would engage with other ministries to see how to facilitate support to the engineering group.

For his part, Dewerd Technologies Group Director Mr Rudie de Wet said their company was capable of serving the mining industry in Botswana in terms of designing manufacturing products and refurbishing old products.

He says the company had trained a lot of people and had very skilled personnel.

He said their staff compliment was 122, which included draftsmen, coded welders, boiler makers and 3 full time engineers.

 He said four of their employees were qualified in hydraulics, which is one of the most difficult systems to operate.

He further said country would benefit a lot  from making use of DWD engineering. 

“There will be a cost saving by working and planning projects together in advance to avoid importing products elsewhere, adding that this will also create employment,” he said.

He urged Batswana to  believe in their potential that they could also be assets to the country’s economic growth and manufacture quality products. 

Mr De Wet also said going forward the company would align its business model to deal with the novel COVID-19 challenges.

Dewerd Technologies Group is the only facility of its kind with ISO:9001/2015 Quality and 45001/2018 HSE accreditation. 

Among other things, the group does fluid reverse circulation, deep directional drilling, heavy engineering and steel manufacturing. ends