02 Feb 2022

An idea that’s starts a business is intellectual property that can drive business development, economic prosperity and human progress.

This was said by Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, Mr Machana Shamukuni during the official opening of the Intellectual Property (IP) Summer School in Kasane Monday.

“Protecting an idea is protecting a business and the role that Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) ownership plays cannot be underestimated in securing the future for Small Medium Enterprises, (SMEs),” he said.

Stating that SMEs were the backbone and drivers of the global economy, he quoted a 2021 joint study by the European Union IP Office and the European Patent Office as saying SMEs owning IPRs had a 68 per cent revenue per employee higher than those without.

He said the study also observed that with the ongoing global uncertainty as a result of COVID-19, IPR ownership offered added potential of SMEs in terms of resilience, competitiveness and reputation.

In Botswana, he said, a number of institutions on entrepreneurship development had been established while promotional policies were revised citing the National Intellectual Property Policy which was in the final stages of consultation.

The minister said in line with this year’s IP Summer School theme, ‘IP Right as a catalyst for Business Success’, there would be a discussion on how IP related to and affected all businesses irrespective of size and form.

“IP protection is key to fostering innovation and without the protection of ideas, business owners would not get return on investment made on their inventions,” he said.

He explained that lack of knowledge on IP resulted in limited product development adding that locally developed and produced products were essential for the economy to provide for locals.

“It is vital that as we promote an export-led economy we have our entrepreneurs fully equipped with requisite knowledge to prepare them to effectively participate in the global economy,” he said

Mr Shamukuni said the Fourth Industrial Revolution was part of the knowledge-based and innovation-led economy era where knowledge was the primary factor of production.

“The frontiers of knowledge need to be advanced across the globe and Botswana as a developing country needs to develop knowledge affecting her economic activities for her economic products to be competitive in the global market,” he said.

Minister Shamukuni said the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology has established Botswana innovation Fund which seeks to provide funding to innovators to assist them to move their ideas from ideation to commercialisation stage.

He said there was little utilisation of the fund due to the low submission of projects along the lines required by Botswana Digital and Innovation Hub. Ends