14 Feb 2023

Achieving the six Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP) 2023/2025 priorities remains crucial to economic growth.

Member of Parliament for Moshupa/Manyana, Mr Karabo Gare said this in his contribution to the debate on the budget proposals for the 2023/2024 financial year on Monday.

“The attainment  of a  high-income country  status by  2036  rests  primarily on the realisation of the  six priorities areas of digital transformation, business environment reforms, infrastructure  development, value  chain  development, sustainable livelihoods and climate, outlined  in the  TNDP  2023/2025,” Mr Gare said.

To that effect, he said creation of a conducive business climate was also pre-requisite to achieving inclusive economic diversification and sustainable growth.

“Government has committed to provide a conducive business climate as a pre-requisite to achieving inclusive economic diversification, sustainable growth and employment creation,” he added.

Again, he said it was commendable that government considered entrepreneurship as a priority vehicle for contributing not only employment creation, economic growth, social and political stability, but also to innovativeness and competitiveness of the country including export-led entrepreneurship development.

On value chain development, Mr Gare, also Minister of Entrepreneurship, applauded government for remaining committed to creating a conducive environment for private sector to explore value chain opportunities in the strategic sector.

“It is in light of this that a development budget of P540 million is proposed for that priority area,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr Gare commended reforms under the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) which related to corporate income tax concessions and transfer duty.

“The  Transfer  Duty  (Amendment) Act, 2022  would exempt SEZs license holders  from paying transfer duty when  acquiring immovable  property, thus removing  bottlenecks  that hindered the  ease  of doing  business,” he said.

The legislator further applauded  the  approval  of the 2022  project  delivery  Development  Manager  Model, which he said would  help address the delays  in project  implementation, which bred corrupt  practices.

“The Development Manager Model could be ideal in addressing the delays in the completion of the Moshupa Primary Hospital, which is currently 76 per cent complete despite the ground-breaking ceremony, which was done back in 2019,” he said.

Commenting on the debate, Francistown West MP, Mr Ignatius Moswaane called for the implementation of the citizen economic inclusion, arguing that foreign-owned companies continued to benefit from major infrastructure development projects at the expense of locally-owned ones.

Mr Moswaane also decried Botswana’s continuation of experiencing the worst ever shortage of medicines in government health facilities, particularly for diabetes as well as insulin. BOPA