27 Jun 2025

Botswana is pursuing sustainable partnerships and investments to fuel inclusive growth and long-term development   as part of a broader drive for economic diversification and shared prosperity.

“We are seeking for partners in development, who will deploy their finance and resources in a sustainable and mutually beneficial manner,” President Advocate Duma Boko said during a courtesy call by World Economic Forum (WEF) Director of Africa, Mr Chido Munyati in Gaborone yesterday.

Such partners, he said should look for equitable trade on terms that served both the investor and the nation with a desire for a durable long-term partnership. Similarly, the President commended WEF for the role it played in the space of fostering partnership and creating meaningful connections over the years in Botswana through Botswana National Productivity Centre.

He highlighted that a lot of focus was on human capital development with an effort to raise productivity and efficiency. President Boko said WEF also assisted in fostering collaborations between locals institutions like Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) and the international partners.

As a result, he commended WEF for the role played thus far further urging them to heighten and strengthen the relations particularly during today’s time when the country seeks to rapidly diversify its economy. In an effort to lure partnerships and investments, the President said Botswana was seeking to leverage from its strategic geographical and political stability as well as credibility of the institutions and predictability of its business environment.

“We seek to take advantage on these to attract foreign direct investment, create jobs and bring about transfer of skill and grow the economy.”

President Boko said Botswana was also pursuing to digitalise the economy. In that regard, he said Botswana was looking for innovative technology with the aim of moving away from the traditional monolithic approach of data centers.

“It is our vision to build hyper scale data centers that will enable many players to seamlessly come on board,” he said.

President Boko said Botswana was also in the process to rebuild the energy resources and move away from the 99 per cent fossils reliance to a 50-50 mix by 2030. These outcomes, he said, were necessary to ensure the country’s energy sufficiency to power the envisioned development drive.

“We need to get to a point where energy is widely available across the country and affordable to many homesteads. We therefore have to bring in partners who have the resources and expertise as well as the appetite and commitment for long time investment in the country,” he said.

Mr Munyati affirmed President Boko of WEF commitment to collaborate with like-minded partners.

“At the WEF we do believe Botswana has viable opportunities for partnership,” he said.

Mr Munyati said WEF was particularly interested on how to support Botswana economic diversification policy and industrialisation. He noted that Botswana could also benefit from the WEF’s skills acceleration programme, which was a global program aimed to facilitate lifelong learning and upskilling of communities. ENDS