24 Aug 2020

The Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Tumiso Rakgare, has called on government to prioritise youth employment.

When discussing mid-term review of the National Development Plan (NDP) 11 in Parliament last week, Mr Rakgare said youth unemployment should be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

Mr Rakgare, also MP for Mogoditshane, said a multi-sectoral approach to youth employment creation in sectors such as agriculture sector, tourism, doing business reforms could absorb many young people.

Furthermore, he said youth should be taught entrepreneurship at a tender age.

Mr Rakgare said he was delighted that the creative industry had been highlighted as one of the sectors with potential to reduce levels of unemployment.

Tati East MP, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe, said Botswana should invest in exporting human resource.

He suggested that government should assist Batswana willing to source  employment in other countries with money for at least six months.

Dr Letsholathebe said government should also encourage and finance innovations such as use of robotics and embrace fourth industrial revolution.

Furthermore, he said government should spend more money on technical and vocational education and training because it produced market ready graduates.

MP for Maunatlala-Lerala, Mr Sethabelo Modukanele, called for efficiency in government spending and financing that he said was crucial for fiscal discipline.

He also called for improvement of primary health care system.

Specially elected MP, Ms Phildah Kereng, emphasised the importance of promoting export-led growth, which she said was important for the country in positioning itself sufficiently to export diverse range of products.

She also called on government to improve on projects implementation to ensure that there were no cost overruns and improvement of poor workmanship.

Regarding the  small medium and micro enterprises, Ms Kereng, argued that it should be supported by government since it absorbed the majority of Batswana.

MP for Okavango, Mr Kenny Kapinga, called for radical departure from how government used to do business in order to transition to high income status.

He said government should shun corruption at all costs citing that government spent huge sums of money in overly priced projects.

Mr Kapinga further said the Citizen Economic Empowerment Agency should improve lives by promoting broad based and equitable economic empowerment of citizens that are or have been previously disadvantaged.

MP for Lentsweletau-Mmopane, Mr Nnaniki Makwinja, said government should come up with strategies to grow the domestic economy.

She said Batswana should seize the opportunity to grow manufacturing industries during the COVID-19 period

Mr Makwinja commended Citizen Entrepreneurship Development Agency for the new guidelines saying it was a step in the right direction to grow local businesses. ENDS