15 Mar 2022

There’s no stabler, more reliable place to invest, and to place one’s family as well as resources than Botswana.

This is the message that President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has consistently given to the world.

It is a message he has unfailingly gone back to in all his interactions with various investors across the world.

And it is the same message he passed to a dozen investors on Monday as they gathered to listen to him fielding questions from renowned CNN correspondent Ms Eleni Giokos at the Dubai 2020 Expo.

His message at the end of the day was the same: Botswana remains the investor’s best bet.

The country, he said, had in place appropriate legal and economic architecture that supported a flourishing business ecosystem any investor should want to belong to.

“We assure investors of return on investment, protection of investment and absolute addiction to the rule of law,” he said in answer to Giokos question about how he was going to position Botswana as the go-to place in the region for multinationals.

All these, he said were designed to ensure seamless entry and exit of business.

The investor, he said could also take comfort in the knowledge that Botswana was signatory to various regional and international conventions and protocols, which could be appealed to in the event there was disagreement.

To put cherry on the sundae, Botswana was friends with many countries, he said.

“We have no known public enemy, so you appeal to our friends, you talk to our friends…the likelihood is you come from a country that’s a friend of ours,” he said as he urged investors to consider bringing their businesses to Botswana.

Touching on the country’s aspirations for high-income status by 2036, Dr Masisi explained that government had embarked on a transformation mandate under the ‘Reset’ mantra to change the way business was conducted, to reprioritise and zero-in on initiatives and policies that would propel the economy.

Currently, he said, the economy was growing at just over four per cent, or two percentage points below the threshold for high-income status realisation, and all the efforts were aimed at accelerating growth.

Especially post COVID -19, there was need to change the way business was conducted, he said.

He noted: “the way we have been interacting with the world and expending our energy in wooing investors; the way in which COVID hit us and how unprepared we were…we had to change. We realised we should never be found unprepared.”

To that end, government had made deliberate efforts to enable the ease of doing business, and invested in infrastructure that would facilitate enterprises.

“We are here to expose opportunities that lie bare for exploitation in Botswana in education, tourism, health and investment so that the economy can be grown,” he stated.

And with such incentives as low tax rate, tax holidays of up to 10 years and free economic zones, the country was set to capitalise on the billions worth of Foreign Direct Investment into Africa.

Dr Masisi assured investors: “We have ready waiting projects for your investment in a country that assures you of return on investment.”

He explained that as the largest producer of diamonds by value, Botswana was steadfast in it's commitment to create jobs for its people.

“We do not want to export value chains in the diamond sector and we want to make sure that every [pula] earned...the overwhelming majority of that is created and earned by us for us,” he said.

He advised the investors that the African Continent Free Trade Area presented them with an astounding 1.3 billion customers across the continent, and that they would do well to tap into that market, with Botswana as their base, and on whose repository of goodwill, faith and commitment they could establish their businesses.  Ends