20 Aug 2020

Since independence, public servants have played a vital role in ensuring that developmental programmes initiated by government reach ordinary people, and as such workers in the civil service deserve credit for their hard work and dedication. 

This was said by the Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Karabo Gare, while contributing to the debate on the Mid-Term Review of the eleventh National Development Plan (NDP 11) at the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Mr Gare further encouraged civil servants to ensure that citizen empowerment initiatives reached intended beneficiaries across the country. 

He said the government initiated such policies to improve the livelihood of Batswana in order to address the challenges facing the nation.

The country is faced with different developmental challenges that NDP 11 would attempt to address, among them extreme poverty in parts of the country and unemployment among others, Mr Gare said.

He said the country had been affected by the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on global and domestic trade, with diamond sales and tourism plummeting, and many local private companies also struggling financially which could have an adverse effect on the country’s tax base.

Mr Gare said that the NDP 11 review sought to promote export-led growth, efficient government spending in order to ensure better value for money in state-led projects, adding that monitoring and evaluation was also a key component due to be promoted.

The Moshupa legislator said he supported the NDP 11 review as it contained relevant ideas that could assist to lift Botswana out of the COVID-19 economic predicament.

Also supporting the review, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Mr Lefoko Moagi noted that economic recovery and transformation was a key theme in the mid-term review, which was relevant given the country’s need to emerge from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said that in the past, what had made Botswana progress had been prudent management of the country’s resources, adding that the emphasis on more efficiency in government spending was important for future success.

Mr Moagi also said that the country needed to explore the use of green technology, through the use of bio-gas, solar energy and other environmentally friendly means of pursuing energy sources.

The Ramotswa legislator also said that different means of ensuring fuel production needed to be explored in order to make Botswana a resilient economy able to withstand shocks such as global economic downturns, such as the one caused by COVID-19.

Mr Moagi added that the country also needed to invest in food production, and encouraged small-scale farmers to work together in clusters in order for the government to be able to assist them collectively.

He said the farmers’ produce should be availed to millers or distributed to different markets through the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board. Ends