04 Aug 2025

The private sector should develop the will to rebuild and reposition the country’s economic status through unlocking new growth in catalytic sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, energy infrastructure and digital services.

In an engagement with the private sector’s chief executive officers on Friday, Vice President Ndaba Gaolathe said government recognised the private sector as the engine of economic growth and job creation, hence the adoption of a multifaceted approach to engage the sector on the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP).

He said the private sector was the architects of Botswana’s next economic destiny, a future, which would be prosperous, inclusive and dynamic.

“Every generation is called to re-engineer and re-imagine the foundation of its economy hence it was an opportune time for the current generation to reshape the economy for the benefit of those to come. We must redesign our economy, not in theory but in practice, we need new industries, new jobs and new frontiers of value creation that require private sector investments,” he said.

Mr Gaolathe, also Minister of Finance, noted that amid the current economic challenges also laid opportunities

He highlighted that the envisioned transformation would not be government driven but rather would be built in private sector boardrooms and farmlands as well as logistics hubs.

Such transformation, he said demanded private sector willingness to dismantle what no longer served the nation.

Through the BETP, the Vice President said government was steadfast to urgently implement reforms through rigorous action.

He said vibrant transformation only occurred when government cultivated a path for the business sector to lead thus the need to place partnerships at the heart of the economic transformation.

“We need to acknowledge that no government has ever transformed its economy by itself. It has always been through effective partnerships with the private sector, cooperatives and civil societies,” he said.

Mr Gaolathe noted that the role of government in most cases would be to create an enabling environment for the prosperity of such private sector-led transformation as the energy to ignite the transformation agenda laid across non-government sectors.

In line with putting the new administration transformation agenda in motion, Mr Gaolathe said government was steadfast in dismantling barriers and fostering an inclusive environment where ordinary citizens could actively participate and thrive within all industries.

“We intend to pay delicate and special attention to the private sector with a view to bring out the best in them and to use them as a lever to significantly reduce costs of doing business in the new Botswana,” he said.

Through the BETP, he said government was breaking away from traditional planning approaches that were too abstract and slow but bringing rigour and agility as well real time decision marking to the country’s developmental process.

Mr Gaolathe stated that too many commercially sound projects were in the past paralysed due to systemic delays and institution bottlenecks.

 He said Botswana was therefore, through the implementation of the BETP ushering in a new era, which was inclusive of all stakeholders, to make economic decisions in real time.

Business Botswana president, Mr Neo Nwako reaffirmed the private sector’s commitment to co-create solutions in support of national transformation efforts geared toward creating a private sector-led economy.

He emphasied the need for mutual trust, inclusive reforms and the revival of doing business reforms so as to eliminate bottlenecks that hindered progress. ENDS