16 Mar 2014

Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Phandu Skelemani has requested Parliament to approve his ministry’s proposed budget of P447 645 090 for recurrent budget and P11million for development budget for the financial year 2014/15.

Presenting the budgetary request on Thursday, March 13, Mr Skelemani said under the recurrent budget, this represents an increase of 8.45 per cent from the previous year’s budget.

Of the proposed amount, the minister said, 43.5 percent would be for personal emoluments, which includes basic salary allowances and remuneration for locally recruited staff in respective missions.

Mr Skelemani said 49 per cent of the requested amount would be for other charges, while the remaining 7.6 per cent is for education allowance.

Furthermore, Mr Skelemani said the increase in this year’s budget request follows the approval of and implementation of the Foreign Service Allowance rates, which is revised annually.

He said the increase is also due to property rentals and rates for missions as additional staff is being deployed to diplomatic missions and general annual escalation in rentals as lease agreements expire from time to time.

Under the development budget, Minister Skelemani said the amount requested is for the pre-construction activities of the Chancery in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at an estimated cost of P5 million and the GABS roll-out to 15 Botswana Diplomatic missions at a cost of P6 million.

Still under the recurrent budget, the ministry’s headquarters would be allocated P63 117 150, which is a decrease of P8 287 480 from the previous year.

He said this was due to the fact that an amount of P8 million included in the 2013/14 approved estimate was to cater for respective missions revised foreign service allowance rates, whereas an amount of P2 357 270 was for replacement of vehicles.

He said the embassy of the country in the United States (US) has requested for an amount of P20 878 930 while the Permanent Mission at the Unites Nations (UN) has requested for an amount of P27 688 750.

Botswana High Commission in the United Kingdom (UK) has requested P26 521 750, the one in Zambia has requested P6 903 310, the embassy in Belgium has requested for P20 746 530 while in Sweden, the request is P15 632 310.

Minister Skelemani told Parliament that in addition, the high commission in Zimbabwe has requested for P11 087 900, while the Namibian one has requested for P8 785 440.

The embassy in China has requested P23 388 940 while the Permanent Mission in Switzerland has asked for P34 134 750.

Furthermore, the minister said, the high commission in Pretoria, South Africa (SA) has requested for P14 043 030, with the consulate general in Johannesburg, SA has requested for P10 254 100.

The embassy in Japan has requested for P22 716 140 while that in Ethiopia has requested for P13 806 230, he said.

In Kenya, the high commission has requested for P10 708 460 while in Australia the request is P18 127 170, for India is P14 976 210, Nigeria’s request is P19 810 410 while the embassy in Brazil has requested P20 149 430.

At the Kuwait embassy, the request is P8 007 220, while the high commission in Mozambique has requested P14 516 760 and the embassy in Germany, established in September 2013 has requested for P21 843 810.

Earlier presenting the budget, the minister said his ministry has the highly demanding task and responsibility of promoting and defending Botswana’s national interests in an environment which is complex, diverse and ever changing.

He told Parliament that the global environment is characterised by stiff competition for limited resources and markets, and to survive, Botswana needs to invest in resources, both human and financial to drive the engagement with the world.

According to Minister Skelemani, resources are needed to secure foreign direct investment and foreign markets for exports to create employment and find places for training citizens in other countries.

Mr Skelemani said as a small country with limited resources, Botswana needs to create capacity to engage the outside world, to strengthen and deepen her relations with other countries, not only engagement at political and diplomatic level.

But through economic diplomacy which has come to occupy centre stage in international relations. ENDS