08 Feb 2022

Botswana’s central location in SADC presents multiple opportunities for investors seeking to tap into the air transport and tourism sectors regionally, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has said.

Addressing the 5th Africa Business Forum held on the margins of the 35th AU summit Monday, he said despite its relatively limited market size and landlocked position, Botswana aspired to become a regional logistics and tourism hub.

The country also had the capacity to serve as a satellite hub complementing other regional hubs and service niche sectors as well as underserviced routes, thus expanding its air freight and air passenger volumes into Africa as a whole, he said.

President Masisi said the country’s air infrastructure was International Civil Aviation Organisation compliant, less congested and offered a more competitive fee structure.

In addition, he said, Botswana’s innovative intra-regional corridor developments and interconnectivity of road, rail and air cargo provided a model platform for accessing local, regional and international markets.

Dr Masisi said that was why the country continued to promote opportunities in the air transport and tourism sectors.

Above all, the President said, Botswana was one of the most business-friendly and stable countries in the region with conducive and welcoming operating environment for investors.

The country had a high degree of safety and security, strong focus on the rule of law and  boasted  incentives such as no restrictions on business ownership and foreign exchange controls as well as remittance and full repatriation of profits and dividends, said Dr Masisi.

Botswana also offered duty-free importation of machinery and equipment for manufacturing purposes and customs duty exemption on raw materials for goods going outside Southern African Customs Union area. 

This was in addition to a competitive tax regime, negotiable tax holiday and deductible training rebate, he said.

Noting that Botswana’s air transportation and tourism industry suffered due to travel restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, President Masisi said government had to put in place an Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan aimed at resuscitating the ailing sectors.

He informed his audience that  the National Tourism Policy was recently revised with the aim of leveraging existing resources to enhance citizen economic participation in lucrative tourism sites in the Okavango Delta and elsewhere in the country.

 The policy also promotes domestic travel and intra-Africa travel through implementation of key supporting projects, ongoing infrastructure upgrades, alignment to Africa Agenda 2063 and the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) to which Botswana  is a signatory.

He said the country had embarked on a number of  national projects to upgrade air transport infrastructure to multimodal level with a view to enable the air transport and tourism sectors to leverage on AfCFTA and Agenda 2063 provisions and aspirations.

Among the projects Dr Masisi mentioned total upgrades and expansion of the Gaborone, Francistown, Maun and Kasane international airports as well as Kazungula, Mohembo and Plaatjan bridges development.

Others include liberalisation of air transportation and tourism sectors to allow for private sector participation such as private air charter services which has attracted a lot of interest from both local and foreign investors.

 ‘Investing in Multimodal Transport Infrastructure to Optimize the Benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area: A Focus on Air Transport and Tourism’ is the theme for this year’s forum. ends