12 Nov 2023

Government has been applauded for the decision to host more international meetings through the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) in the tourism sector.

Contributing to the State-of- the-Nation Address on Thursday, Member of Parliament for Gaborone North, Mr Mpho Balopi indicated that although such an effort was commendable, the meetings should be packaged such that international visitors were compelled to visit other areas of interest before heading back home.

“In that way, we would guarantee that the country benefitted more than just hosting the conference because visitors would spend more money exploring such places. 

Visits to areas of interest such as the Okavango Delta should be considered as part of MICE,” he said.

He cited the Dubai marathon, which he said usually had breaks in between to give international visitors time to tour the city and spend money to boost the economy. 

On other issues, Mr Balopi pleaded with government to ensure the return of school sports, saying it would ensure a stream of sports talent to take over when others retired.

“The current arrangement where there is no school sport raises the risk of vacuum when current stars such as Letsile Tebogo retire. 

I would advice the Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture to invest more in athletics as the code has always shown results,” he said.

Mr Balopi also said because athletics had always shown more potential than most codes, the ministry should consider schools of excellence that focused solely on athletics, just like it had always been the case with football.

He cited the neighbouring South Africa, where he said about 80 per cent of its rugby national team players who recently retained the World Cup, came from areas where there were rugby schools.

He said establishing schools of excellence across the country would help reduce drug usage in schools as learners would be kept busy.

On other issues, Mr Balopi said the decision to have government as the major fuel distributor would likely escalate prices as suppliers normally hiked prices when dealing with government.

“Leaving fuel distribution in the hands of the private sector was the best thing because they can better manage themselves through competitive prices as they wanted to stay relevant in the industry,” he said.

Also making his contribution to the SONA, Member of Parliament for Jwaneng/Mabutsane, Mr Mephato Reatile decried the status of the country’s foreign reserves, which he said were dwindling.

He indicated that in 1998, Botswana’s foreign reserves stood at about P76.5 billion compared to P54.5 billion last year.

“The trend is such that our foreign reserves are dwindling annually, and if this trend continues, then our dream of becoming a high-income country will always be just a dream,” he said.

Mr Reatile also said this year’s SONA was silent on the status of the foreign reserves, adding that it raised fears that they were much low. 

He also called on the Independent Electoral Commission to be more transparent in conducting its business and said lack of transparency might lead to lack of trust by citizens. ends