04 Nov 2013

Government has so far spent about P3.5 billion in funding 5 197 enterprises and in the process creating 30 000 jobs.

President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama said when delivering the State-of-the-Nation Address in Parliament. He said during the 2012/13 financial year, a total investment worth over P1 billion was realised and it generated 1 206 jobs.

During the same year, he said, CEDA assisted 438 new enterprises with P453 million, collectively generating 1 572 new jobs. President Khama said in promotion of citizen economic empowerment, government was finding synergies from what had previously been disparate initiatives.

He said as part of its youth outreach, the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) introduced the Entrepreneurship Awareness Workshop Programme. Beginning August 1, he said, LEA trained a total of 18 213 participants from senior secondary schools, brigades and technical colleges.

He said during the 2012/13 financial year, LEA also carried out 1 384 additional training interventions, serving 1 003 clients. On other issues, President Khama said he was pleased to report that in a survey of 102 countries the 2013 Baseline Profitability Index ranked Botswana as the world’s second most attractive location for medium to long-term investment.

“This finding is consistent with our continued high rankings in various respected worldwide surveys of economic freedom and risk, such as those annually conducted by the Fraser Institute and the Wall Street Journal with the Heritage Foundation,” he said.Ends