10 Nov 2021

The innovation month platform at Expo Dubai 2020 is a unique opportunity to expose Botswana’s innovation ecosystem, says Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe.

 He was speaking during a digital transformation conference at the ongoing Expo 2020 in Dubai recently.

The innovation month, he said, would feature some of the innovation projects that had benefitted from the Botswana Innovation Fund to move from ideation to pre-commercial level.

“We believe they will have the opportunities to further refine their innovations from this experience,” he said.

Dr Letsholathebe noted that through the month, there would be opportunities for innovation pitch sessions that would expose some start-up communities to adopt robust investment pitching skills in order to attract investors both for their innovations and to Botswana.

He said during the course of the month, numerous innovators from Botswana would be hosted both virtually and physically.

Urging his audience to interact with the Botswana innovators,  he said they were ‘agents of our transformation as a country who seek partnerships and technology transfer opportunities as well as investment on their intellectual property to commercialise the solutions’.

Dr Letsholathebe noted that Expo 2020 showcased cutting-edge innovations that  Botswana wished to find relevance and connections to.

  He said to improve its economy, the country had an ambitious plan to take full advantage of opportunities presented by digital transformation and all its allied technologies and processes.

Through the Smart Bots initiative, he stated, Botswana intended to take full advantage of opportunities presented by the fourth industrial revolution.

Minister Letsholathebe said the intension was not to leave anyone behind which required digital transformation of everything, including the public and private sectors.

The result would be fundamental changes on the way services were delivered to citizens, customers, partners and employees, he said.

“My participation at EXPO 2020 is to echo our sentiments in identifying and attracting the relevant organisations, partners and individuals who are willing to partner with us as we ease towards our ideals of transcending the middle-income status as a country,” said the minister.

Dr Letsholathebe said the Botswana Digital Innovation Hub would implement key components of the Smart Bots strategy through a lab which also housed the Science and Innovation School of Excellence.

The initiatives would focus on digital transformation of the public sector while the ministry would provide policy guidance and funding to facilitate research and innovation uptake countrywide, he said.ENDS